diff --git a/parquet_file/src/metadata.rs b/parquet_file/src/metadata.rs
index 403785603e..8507ad1e17 100644
--- a/parquet_file/src/metadata.rs
+++ b/parquet_file/src/metadata.rs
@@ -483,12 +483,13 @@ pub struct IoxParquetMetaData {
 impl IoxParquetMetaData {
     /// Read parquet metadata from a parquet file.
     pub fn from_file_bytes(data: Vec<u8>) -> Result<Option<Self>> {
+        if data.is_empty() {
+            return Ok(None);
+        }
+
         let cursor = SliceableCursor::new(data);
         let reader = SerializedFileReader::new(cursor).context(ParquetMetaDataRead {})?;
         let parquet_md = reader.metadata().clone();
-        if parquet_md.num_row_groups() == 0 {
-            return Ok(None);
-        }
 
         let data = Self::parquet_md_to_thrift(parquet_md)?;
         Ok(Some(Self::from_thrift_bytes(data)))
diff --git a/parquet_file/src/storage.rs b/parquet_file/src/storage.rs
index a47fb601be..f858ed3d17 100644
--- a/parquet_file/src/storage.rs
+++ b/parquet_file/src/storage.rs
@@ -109,17 +109,17 @@ impl Storage {
 
         let schema = stream.schema();
         let data = Self::parquet_stream_to_bytes(stream, schema, metadata).await?;
+        // no data
+        if data.is_empty() {
+            return Ok(None);
+        }
+
         // TODO: make this work w/o cloning the byte vector (https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb_iox/issues/1504)
 
         let file_size_bytes = data.len();
         let md =
             IoxParquetMetaData::from_file_bytes(data.clone()).context(ExtractingMetadataFailure)?;
 
-        // No data
-        if md.is_none() {
-            return Ok(None);
-        }
-
         self.to_object_store(data, &path).await?;
 
         Ok(Some((path, file_size_bytes, md.unwrap())))
@@ -149,10 +149,15 @@ impl Storage {
         {
             let mut writer = ArrowWriter::try_new(mem_writer.clone(), schema, Some(props))
                 .context(OpeningParquetWriter)?;
+            let mut no_stream_data = true;
             while let Some(batch) = stream.next().await {
+                no_stream_data = false;
                 let batch = batch.context(ReadingStream)?;
                 writer.write(&batch).context(WritingParquetToMemory)?;
             }
+            if no_stream_data {
+                return Ok(vec![]);
+            }
             writer.close().context(ClosingParquetWriter)?;
         } // drop the reference to the MemWriter that the SerializedFileWriter has