error starting up crawlee - json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value

[yqiang]

I'm getting the following traceback when trying to start a crawl job again after exiting with "CTRL-C":

❯ CRAWLEE_PURGE_ON_START=0 python main.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "proj/main.py", line 80, in <module>
    asyncio.run(main())
    ~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^
  File "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.13/3.13.2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/lib/python3.13/asyncio/runners.py", line 195, in run
    return runner.run(main)
           ~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
  File "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.13/3.13.2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/lib/python3.13/asyncio/runners.py", line 118, in run
    return self._loop.run_until_complete(task)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
  File "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.13/3.13.2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/lib/python3.13/asyncio/base_events.py", line 725, in run_until_complete
    return future.result()
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "proj/main.py", line 76, in main
    await crawler.run(urls)
  File "proj/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/crawlee/crawlers/_basic/_basic_crawler.py", line 474, in run
    await self.add_requests(requests)
  File "proj/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/crawlee/crawlers/_basic/_basic_crawler.py", line 563, in add_requests
    request_manager = await self.get_request_manager()
                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "proj/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/crawlee/crawlers/_basic/_basic_crawler.py", line 406, in get_request_manager
    self._request_manager = await RequestQueue.open()
                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "proj/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/crawlee/storages/_request_queue.py", line 165, in open
    return await open_storage(
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    ...<5 lines>...
    )
    ^
  File "proj/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/crawlee/storages/_creation_management.py", line 166, in open_storage
    storage_info = await resource_collection_client.get_or_create(name=name, id=id)
                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "proj/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/crawlee/storage_clients/_memory/_request_queue_collection_client.py", line 35, in get_or_create
    resource_client = await get_or_create_inner(
                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    ...<5 lines>...
    )
    ^
  File "proj/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/crawlee/storage_clients/_memory/_creation_management.py", line 143, in get_or_create_inner
    found = find_or_create_client_by_id_or_name_inner(
        resource_client_class=resource_client_class,
    ...<2 lines>...
        id=id,
    )
  File "proj/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/crawlee/storage_clients/_memory/_creation_management.py", line 102, in find_or_create_client_by_id_or_name_inner
    storage_path = _determine_storage_path(resource_client_class, memory_storage_client, id, name)
  File "proj/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/crawlee/storage_clients/_memory/_creation_management.py", line 412, in _determine_storage_path
    metadata = json.load(metadata_file)
  File "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.13/3.13.2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/lib/python3.13/json/__init__.py", line 293, in load
    return loads(fp.read(),
        cls=cls, object_hook=object_hook,
        parse_float=parse_float, parse_int=parse_int,
        parse_constant=parse_constant, object_pairs_hook=object_pairs_hook, **kw)
  File "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.13/3.13.2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/lib/python3.13/json/__init__.py", line 346, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^
  File "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.13/3.13.2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/lib/python3.13/json/decoder.py", line 345, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/python@3.13/3.13.2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/lib/python3.13/json/decoder.py", line 363, in raw_decode
    raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

It looks like it might be having trouble decoding the metadata file? FWIW, I don't see any metadata files in storage/request_queues/default.

[janbuchar]

Hello @yqiang and thanks for the bug report! This seems like the same thing as #968, but that was closed due to inactivity. I hope we can crack it this time 🙂

[yqiang]

I hope so too. FWIW crawlee was running with around 25 concurrent headless WebKit clients via playwright. In the meantime, is there anything that I can try to salvage this crawl job?

[Mantisus]

I don't see any metadata files in

Could you double-check, the file should be called __metadata__.json? It might be lost among the queue files.... :)

Because if it's not in folder, it should have been re-created automatically. However, if it is in the folder and it is empty, it will probably trigger your error.

[yqiang]

The file exists, but it's empty:

storage/request_queues/default on main via 🐍 v3.13.2
❯ file __metadata__.json
__metadata__.json: empty

Otherwise the directory is populated with other request files:

❯ ls -l | wc -l
    1558

Should I remove the file so it can recreate it?

[Mantisus]

The file exists, but it's empty:

Apparently сrawl interrupted when the file was supposed to be updated.

Should I remove the file so it can recreate it?

Yeah, I think that'll work for you. The queue should be restored from the requests data