diff --git a/src/client/client_aliases.ml b/src/client/client_aliases.ml
index 776a3efe5..62548d8f7 100644
--- a/src/client/client_aliases.ml
+++ b/src/client/client_aliases.ml
@@ -99,7 +99,8 @@ module Alias = functor (Entity : Entity) -> struct
 
   let load cctxt =
     let filename = filename cctxt in
-    if not (Sys.file_exists filename) then
+    if not (Sys.file_exists filename) ||
+       Unix.(stat filename).st_size = 0 then
       return []
     else
       Data_encoding_ezjsonm.read_file filename