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ollama - 💡(How to fix) Fix Local Embedding Requests returning HTTP 401 Unauthorized despite no API Key configuration

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Error Message

12:10:08 [memory] sync failed (session-start): Error: Ollama embed HTTP 401: {"error": "unauthorized"} 12:10:08 [memory] sync failed (search): Error: Ollama embed HTTP 401: {"error": "unauthorized"}

Code Example

12:10:08 [memory] sync failed (session-start): Error: Ollama embed HTTP 401: {"error": "unauthorized"}
12:10:08 [memory] sync failed (search): Error: Ollama embed HTTP 401: {"error": "unauthorized"}
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What is the issue?

I am encountering a persistent HTTP 401: unauthorized error when making requests to the local embedding endpoint (/api/embed).

Expected Behavior: Since this is a local installation on my own machine, the embedding requests should be processed without requiring an API key or Bearer token.

Actual Behavior: The server consistently returns: HTTP 401: {"error": "unauthorized"}.

Crucial Troubleshooting steps already taken:

  • API Key: I have ensured that no API keys are configured in the client.
  • Clean Install: I performed a complete uninstallation and re-installation of Ollama, including clearing all AppData/Local and Roaming folders to remove any legacy credentials.
  • Proxy Test: I implemented a local Node.js proxy to explicitly strip all Authorization headers from the requests before they reached Ollama. Even with the headers removed, the server still returned a 401 error.
  • Model: The issue occurs with gemma4:31b-cloud and other models.

It seems the server is enforcing authentication for local embedding requests even when no credentials are provided, or it is misinterpreting the local request as an unauthorized cloud attempt.

Relevant log output

12:10:08 [memory] sync failed (session-start): Error: Ollama embed HTTP 401: {"error": "unauthorized"}
12:10:08 [memory] sync failed (search): Error: Ollama embed HTTP 401: {"error": "unauthorized"}

OS

Windows

GPU

No response

CPU

No response

Ollama version

0.24.0

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ollama - 💡(How to fix) Fix Local Embedding Requests returning HTTP 401 Unauthorized despite no API Key configuration