Troubleshooting

This guide covers common issues you may encounter when using LocalAI, organized by category. For each issue, diagnostic steps and solutions are provided.

Quick Diagnostics

Before diving into specific issues, run these commands to gather diagnostic information:

# Check LocalAI is running and responsive
curl http://localhost:8080/readyz

# List loaded models
curl http://localhost:8080/v1/models

# Check LocalAI version
local-ai --version

# Enable debug logging for detailed output
DEBUG=true local-ai run
# or
local-ai run --log-level=debug

For Docker deployments:

# View container logs
docker logs local-ai

# Check container status
docker ps -a | grep local-ai

# Test GPU access (NVIDIA)
docker run --rm --gpus all nvidia/cuda:12.8.0-base-ubuntu24.04 nvidia-smi

Installation Issues

Binary Won’t Execute on Linux

Symptoms: Permission denied or “cannot execute binary file” errors.

Solution:

chmod +x local-ai-*
./local-ai-Linux-x86_64 run

If you see “cannot execute binary file: Exec format error”, you downloaded the wrong architecture. Verify with:

uname -m
# x86_64 → download the x86_64 binary
# aarch64 → download the arm64 binary

macOS: Application Is Quarantined

Symptoms: macOS blocks LocalAI from running because the DMG is not signed by Apple.

Solution: See GitHub issue #6268 for quarantine bypass instructions. This is tracked for resolution in issue #6244.

Model Loading Problems

Model Not Found

Symptoms: API returns 404 or "model not found" error.

Diagnostic steps:

  1. Check the model exists in your models directory:

    ls -la /path/to/models/

  2. Verify your models path is correct:

    # Check what path LocalAI is using
local-ai run --models-path /path/to/models --log-level=debug

  3. Confirm the model name matches your request:

    # List available models
curl http://localhost:8080/v1/models | jq '.data[].id'

Model Fails to Load (Backend Error)

Symptoms: Model is found but fails to load, with backend errors in the logs.

Common causes and fixes:

  • Wrong backend: Ensure the backend in your model YAML matches the model format. GGUF models use llama-cpp, diffusion models use diffusers, etc. See the compatibility table for details.
  • Backend not installed: Check installed backends:
    local-ai backends list
# Install a missing backend:
local-ai backends install llama-cpp
  • Corrupt model file: Re-download the model. Partial downloads or disk errors can corrupt files.
  • Wrong model format: LocalAI uses GGUF format for llama.cpp models. Older GGML format is deprecated.

Model Configuration Issues

Symptoms: Model loads but produces unexpected results or errors during inference.

Check your model YAML configuration:

# Example model config
name: my-model
backend: llama-cpp
parameters:
  model: my-model.gguf  # Relative to models directory
context_size: 2048
threads: 4  # Should match physical CPU cores

Common mistakes:

  • model path must be relative to the models directory, not an absolute path
  • threads set higher than physical CPU cores causes contention
  • context_size too large for available RAM causes OOM errors

GPU and Memory Issues

GPU Not Detected

NVIDIA (CUDA):

# Verify CUDA is available
nvidia-smi

# For Docker, verify GPU passthrough
docker run --rm --gpus all nvidia/cuda:12.8.0-base-ubuntu24.04 nvidia-smi

When working correctly, LocalAI logs should show: ggml_init_cublas: found X CUDA devices.

Ensure you are using a CUDA-enabled container image (tags containing cuda11, cuda12, or cuda13). CPU-only images cannot use NVIDIA GPUs.

AMD (ROCm):

# Verify ROCm installation
rocminfo

# Docker requires device passthrough
docker run --device=/dev/kfd --device=/dev/dri --group-add=video ...

If your GPU is not in the default target list, open up an Issue. Supported targets include: gfx900, gfx906, gfx908, gfx90a, gfx940, gfx941, gfx942, gfx1030, gfx1031, gfx1100, gfx1101.

Intel (SYCL):

# Docker requires device passthrough
docker run --device /dev/dri ...

Use container images with gpu-intel in the tag. Known issue: SYCL hangs when mmap: true is set — disable it in your model config:

mmap: false

Overriding backend auto-detection:

If LocalAI picks the wrong GPU backend, override it:

LOCALAI_FORCE_META_BACKEND_CAPABILITY=nvidia local-ai run
# Options: default, nvidia, amd, intel

Out of Memory (OOM)

Symptoms: Model loading fails or the process is killed by the OS.

Solutions:

  1. Use smaller quantizations: Q4_K_S or Q2_K use significantly less memory than Q8_0 or Q6_K
  2. Reduce context size: Lower context_size in your model YAML
  3. Enable low VRAM mode: Add low_vram: true to your model config
  4. Limit active models: Only keep one model loaded at a time:
    local-ai run --max-active-backends=1
  5. Enable idle watchdog: Automatically unload unused models:
    local-ai run --enable-watchdog-idle --watchdog-idle-timeout=10m
  6. Manually unload a model:
    curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/backend/shutdown \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "model-name"}'

Models Stay Loaded and Consume Memory

By default, models remain loaded in memory after first use. This can exhaust VRAM when switching between models.

Configure LRU eviction:

# Keep at most 2 models loaded; evict least recently used
local-ai run --max-active-backends=2

Configure watchdog auto-unload:

local-ai run \
  --enable-watchdog-idle --watchdog-idle-timeout=15m \
  --enable-watchdog-busy --watchdog-busy-timeout=5m

These can also be set via environment variables (LOCALAI_WATCHDOG_IDLE=true, LOCALAI_WATCHDOG_IDLE_TIMEOUT=15m) or in the Web UI under Settings → Watchdog Settings.

See the VRAM Management guide for more details.

API Connection Problems

Connection Refused

Symptoms: curl: (7) Failed to connect to localhost port 8080: Connection refused

Diagnostic steps:

  1. Verify LocalAI is running:

    # Direct install
ps aux | grep local-ai

# Docker
docker ps | grep local-ai

  2. Check the bind address and port:

    # Default is :8080. Override with:
local-ai run --address=0.0.0.0:8080
# or
LOCALAI_ADDRESS=":8080" local-ai run

  3. Check for port conflicts:

    ss -tlnp | grep 8080

Authentication Errors (401)

Symptoms: 401 Unauthorized response.

If API key authentication is enabled (LOCALAI_API_KEY or --api-keys), include the key in your requests:

curl http://localhost:8080/v1/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Keys can also be passed via x-api-key or xi-api-key headers.

Request Errors (400/422)

Symptoms: 400 Bad Request or 422 Unprocessable Entity.

Common causes:

  • Malformed JSON in request body
  • Missing required fields (e.g., model or messages)
  • Invalid parameter values (e.g., negative top_n for reranking)

Enable debug logging to see the full request/response:

DEBUG=true local-ai run

See the API Errors reference for a complete list of error codes and their meanings.

Performance Issues

Slow Inference

Diagnostic steps:

  1. Enable debug mode to see inference timing:

    DEBUG=true local-ai run

  2. Use streaming to measure time-to-first-token:

    curl http://localhost:8080/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "my-model", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}], "stream": true}'

Common causes and fixes:

  • Model on HDD: Move models to an SSD. If stuck with HDD, disable memory mapping (mmap: false) to load the model entirely into RAM.
  • Thread overbooking: Set --threads to match your physical CPU core count (not logical/hyperthreaded count).
  • Default sampling: LocalAI uses mirostat sampling by default, which produces better quality output but is slower. Disable it for benchmarking:
    # In model config
mirostat: 0
  • No GPU offloading: Ensure gpu_layers is set in your model config to offload layers to GPU:
    gpu_layers: 99  # Offload all layers
  • Context size too large: Larger context sizes require more memory and slow down inference. Use the smallest context size that meets your needs.

High Memory Usage

  • Use quantized models (Q4_K_M is a good balance of quality and size)
  • Reduce context_size
  • Enable low_vram: true in model config
  • Disable mmlock (memory locking) if it’s enabled
  • Set --max-active-backends=1 to keep only one model in memory

Docker-Specific Problems

Container Fails to Start

Diagnostic steps:

# Check container logs
docker logs local-ai

# Check if port is already in use
ss -tlnp | grep 8080

# Verify the image exists
docker images | grep localai

GPU Not Available Inside Container

NVIDIA:

# Ensure nvidia-container-toolkit is installed, then:
docker run --gpus all ...

AMD:

docker run --device=/dev/kfd --device=/dev/dri --group-add=video ...

Intel:

docker run --device /dev/dri ...

Health Checks Failing

Add a health check to your Docker Compose configuration:

services:
  local-ai:
    image: localai/localai:latest
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:8080/readyz"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3

Models Not Persisted Between Restarts

Mount a volume for your models directory:

services:
  local-ai:
    volumes:
      - ./models:/build/models:cached

Network and P2P Issues

P2P Workers Not Discovered

Symptoms: Distributed inference setup but workers are not found.

Key requirements:

  • Use --net host or network_mode: host in Docker
  • Share the same P2P token across all nodes

Debug P2P connectivity:

LOCALAI_P2P_LOGLEVEL=debug \
LOCALAI_P2P_LIB_LOGLEVEL=debug \
LOCALAI_P2P_ENABLE_LIMITS=true \
LOCALAI_P2P_TOKEN="<TOKEN>" \
local-ai run

If DHT is causing issues, try disabling it to use local mDNS discovery instead:

LOCALAI_P2P_DISABLE_DHT=true local-ai run

P2P Limitations

  • Only a single model is currently supported for distributed inference
  • Workers must be detected before inference starts — you cannot add workers mid-inference
  • Workers mode supports llama-cpp compatible models only

See the Distributed Inferencing guide for full setup instructions.

Still Having Issues?

If your issue isn’t covered here:

  1. Search existing issues: Check the GitHub Issues for similar problems
  2. Enable debug logging: Run with DEBUG=true or --log-level=debug and include the logs when reporting
  3. Open a new issue: Include your OS, hardware (CPU/GPU), LocalAI version, model being used, full error logs, and steps to reproduce
  4. Community help: Join the LocalAI Discord for community support