OSError: [E053] Could not read meta.json from model-best.zip - machine-learning

Question

I tried to load the trained spacy model but this error appear:
OSError: [E053] Could not read meta.json from model-best.zip
this is my code:
nlp_ner = spacy.load("model-best.zip")

Answer 1

For spaCy 3, you can load models from 3 sources:
Pretrained models (downloaded via a command like python -m spacy download YOUR_MODEL
Custom models you have trained via spacy train.
Loaded models via nlp.from_disk
Usually, any of these models is stored as a folder or directory, with an structure similar to this one (for a NER model, which it seems it is what you are attempting to load):
/path/to/your/model/
├── model-best <== THIS DIRECTORY IS WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE
│   ├── config.cfg
│   ├── meta.json
│   ├── ner
│   │   ├── cfg
│   │   ├── model
│   │   └── moves
│   ├── tok2vec
│   │   ├── cfg
│   │   └── model
│   ├── tokenizer
│   └── vocab
│   ├── key2row
│   ├── lookups.bin
│   ├── strings.json
│   ├── vectors
│   └── vectors.cfg
└── model-last
├── config.cfg
├── meta.json
├── ner
│   ├── cfg
│   ├── model
│   └── moves
├── tok2vec
│   ├── cfg
│   └── model
├── tokenizer
└── vocab
├── key2row
├── lookups.bin
├── strings.json
├── vectors
└── vectors.cfg
8 directories, 26 files
This discards "loading directly from a .zip file" as a valid option.
I think you may want to try the following:
Try to unzip model-best.zip and see if you find a similar directory structure than the one shown above. If you are in a Linux-based system, here is how.
If the previous structure is confirmed, then proceed with step 3, otherwise your file may be corrupted, or not a spaCy model as such, and you won't be able to load the model.
Try nlp_ner = spacy.load("/path/to/your/model-best") (nlp_ner = spacy.load("./model-best") in your case) and see if it works.
Hope it helps.