UnicodeDecodeError from tf.train.import_meta_graph - tensorflow

Question

I serialized a Tensorflow model with the following code ...
save_path = self.saver.save(self.session, os.path.join(self.logdir, "model.ckpt"), global_step)
logging.info("Model saved in file: %s" % save_path)
... and I'm now trying to restore it from scratch in a separate file using the following code:
saver = tf.train.import_meta_graph(PROJ_DIR + '/logs/default/model.ckpt-54.meta')
session = tf.Session()
saver.restore(session, PROJ_DIR + '/logs/default/model.ckpt-54')
print('Model restored')
When tf.train.import_meta_graph is called, the following exception is thrown:
[libprotobuf ERROR google/protobuf/io/coded_stream.cc:207] A protocol message was rejected because it was too big (more than 67108864 bytes). To increase the limit (or to disable these warnings), see CodedInputStream::SetTotalBytesLimit() in google/protobuf/io/coded_stream.h.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/reid/projects/research/ccg/taggerflow_modified/test/tf_restore.py", line 4, in <module>
saver = tf.train.import_meta_graph(PROJ_DIR + '/logs/default/model.ckpt-54.meta')
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/tensorflow/python/training/saver.py", line 1711, in import_meta_graph
read_meta_graph_file(meta_graph_or_file), clear_devices)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/tensorflow/python/training/saver.py", line 1563, in read_meta_graph_file
text_format.Merge(file_content.decode("utf-8"), meta_graph_def)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/encodings/utf_8.py", line 16, in decode
return codecs.utf_8_decode(input, errors, True)
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xa7 in position 1: invalid start byte
For reference, here's the first few lines of <PROJ_DIR>/logs/default/model.ckpt-54.meta:
<A7>:^R<A4>:
9
^CAdd^R^F
^Ax"^AT^R^F
^Ay"^AT^Z^F
^Az"^AT"^Z
^AT^R^Dtype:^O
^M2^K^S^A^B^D^F^E^C ^R^G
I think that Tensorflow is using a different encoding when serializing vs when deserializing. How do we specify the encoding that Tensorflow uses when serializing/deserializing? Or is the solution something different?

Answer 1

I was facing the same issue. Have you ensured that apart from the
.meta, .data-00000-of-00001 and the .index files
the file named 'checkpoint' too is there in the directory from which you're loading the model?
My issue got resolved after I made sure of this. Hope this helps!