Open WebUI Fixes Null Embedding Batch Setting That Could Break File Processing

Open WebUI merged PR #33288 into the dev branch on October 28, fixing a null-handling bug in document settings: after an administrator cleared Embedding Batch Size and saved, subsequently uploaded files might fail to finish processing. The change directly affects document ingestion and the preprocessing stage for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). Fix record

The reporter reproduced the issue on a Linux development build using the Ollama embedding engine, and said a test instance using an OpenAI-compatible engine showed the same result. To trigger it, clear the batch size on the Documents page in the admin interface and save. The system reports success, and reloading the page may even show the value 1 again, but attaching a small text file still produces an error that NoneType cannot be used as an integer. The default value displayed in the interface thus masked the actual setting state. Issue report

The official documentation says this parameter controls how many text chunks an external embedding service receives per API request. It defaults to 1 and applies to Ollama, OpenAI, and Azure OpenAI; it does not apply to the default SentenceTransformers engine. Increasing the batch size can reduce the number of requests, but first confirm that the service and model support multiple inputs. This parameter is also distinct from the concurrency setting, which controls the number of simultaneous requests. Configuration documentation

The fix description traces the cause to the settings write boundary: a blank field submits null, which the backend saves directly, while the embedding function requires a number. The update converts empty values to 1 when saving. The author said the same text file processed successfully after the fix and reported that existing document and retrieval-related tests passed; these validations are results reported by the contributor. Fix and validation

For operators, this case shows that when troubleshooting document ingestion failures, it is also worth checking whether the setting was actually saved as a valid number. Affected instances can enter a valid batch size and save again, then upload a small file to confirm recovery. The fix is confirmed merged into the development branch; that alone does not establish that it is included in a stable release. According to the fix description, instances with an existing null value still need to save the Documents settings again. Follow-up guidance