diff --git a/docs/v0.1.0/.documenter-siteinfo.json b/docs/v0.1.0/.documenter-siteinfo.json
index 763293b..a748a5f 100644
--- a/docs/v0.1.0/.documenter-siteinfo.json
+++ b/docs/v0.1.0/.documenter-siteinfo.json
@@ -1 +1 @@
-{"documenter":{"julia_version":"1.10.0","generation_timestamp":"2024-06-04T08:50:31","documenter_version":"1.4.1"}}
\ No newline at end of file
+{"documenter":{"julia_version":"1.10.0","generation_timestamp":"2024-06-04T11:06:02","documenter_version":"1.4.1"}}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/h5df_format.jl b/src/h5df_format.jl
index 6adc9a9..f006caf 100644
--- a/src/h5df_format.jl
+++ b/src/h5df_format.jl
@@ -879,7 +879,7 @@ function Formats.format_get_matrix(
 end
 
 function dataset_as_vector(dataset::HDF5.Dataset)::Tuple{StorageVector, CacheType}
-    if HDF5.ismmappable(dataset) && HDF5.iscontiguous(dataset)
+    if HDF5.ismmappable(dataset) && HDF5.iscontiguous(dataset) && length(dataset) > 0
         return (HDF5.readmmap(dataset), MappedData)
     else
         return (read(dataset), MemoryData)
@@ -887,7 +887,7 @@ function dataset_as_vector(dataset::HDF5.Dataset)::Tuple{StorageVector, CacheTyp
 end
 
 function dataset_as_matrix(dataset::HDF5.Dataset)::Tuple{StorageMatrix, CacheType}
-    if HDF5.ismmappable(dataset) && HDF5.iscontiguous(dataset)
+    if HDF5.ismmappable(dataset) && HDF5.iscontiguous(dataset) && length(dataset) > 0
         return (HDF5.readmmap(dataset), MappedData)
     else
         return (read(dataset), MemoryData)  # untested