# Invalid value for 'emp-paired-end-sequences.qza'
**URL:** https://forum.qiime2.org/t/invalid-value-for-emp-paired-end-sequences-qza/32685
**Category:** User Support
**Tags:** demux
**Created:** [March 5, 2025, 5:05pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/invalid-value-for-emp-paired-end-sequences-qza/32685 "2025-03-05T17:05:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@fahoffmannsarda](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/fahoffmannsarda)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2025, 5:05pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/invalid-value-for-emp-paired-end-sequences-qza/32685/1 "2025-03-05T17:05:36Z")
# Have you searched for the problem on the forum? Unfortunately, I couldn't find it.
- Have you reviewed the [QIIME 2 Forum Glossary](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/how-the-forum-works/7085#heading--glossary)? Yes
- Version of QIIME 2 you are running, and how it is installed (e.g. Virtualbox, conda, etc.) - qiime2-2022.2
- What is the exact command or commands you ran? Copy and paste please.
# demultiplexing
qiime demux emp-paired
--m-barcodes-file /metadata/mappingfile\_qiime2.txt
--m-barcodes-column BarcodeSequence
--p-rev-comp-mapping-barcodes
--i-seqs emp-paired-end-sequences.qza
--o-per-sample-sequences demux-full.qza
--o-error-correction-details demux-details.qza
--p-no-golay-error-correction
--p-rev-comp-barcodes
- What is the exact error message, if applicable? If you didn't run the command with the `--verbose` flag, please re-run and copy-and-paste the results.
Error message: Invalid value for '--i-seqs': 'emp-paired-end-sequences.qza' is not a QIIME 2 Artifact (.qza)
We checked for typos, but we couldn't localize them. Is our Qiime2 version ?
Thanks,
Fabiana
---
### Author:  [@colinvwood](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/colinvwood)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2025, 5:33pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/invalid-value-for-emp-paired-end-sequences-qza/32685/2 "2025-03-05T17:33:32Z")
Hello @fahoffmannsarda,
This error usually happens when you accidentally rename a file that is not a qiime2 artifact to look like one (by adding a `.qza` extension). Try to see if that or something similar happened.
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### Author:  [@fahoffmannsarda](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/fahoffmannsarda)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2025, 6:08pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/invalid-value-for-emp-paired-end-sequences-qza/32685/3 "2025-03-05T18:08:26Z")
Hi Colin,
Thank you very much.
I created the file using this command:
qiime tools import
--type EMPPairedEndSequences
--input-path /sequences/
--output-path emp-paired-end-sequences.qza
# and in I had my three not demultiplexed files
barcodes.fastq.gz
forward.fast.gz
reverse.fast.gz
Thanks,
Kindest regards,
Fabiana
---
### Author:  [@colinvwood](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/colinvwood)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2025, 5:14pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/invalid-value-for-emp-paired-end-sequences-qza/32685/4 "2025-03-06T17:14:37Z")
Hello @fahoffmannsarda,
Could you run `rm emp-paired-end-sequences.qza` (only if you still have the `sequences/` folder!) and then rerun the import command and then attach the full terminal log of these steps here?
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2025, 11:15pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/invalid-value-for-emp-paired-end-sequences-qza/32685/5 "2025-04-06T23:15:07Z")
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