diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 96c73f5..3c08637 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## Unreleased
 
-BUG: fix `baballe digest > file.json`
+- BUG: fix `baballe digest > file.json`
+- BUG: fix a bug where `idfx digest` would choke on files where no line is captured
 
 ## [3.2.0] - 2023-09-06
 
diff --git a/src/idefix_cli/_commands/digest.py b/src/idefix_cli/_commands/digest.py
index 8bc91dd..4ad1697 100644
--- a/src/idefix_cli/_commands/digest.py
+++ b/src/idefix_cli/_commands/digest.py
@@ -112,12 +112,18 @@ def command(
 
     data: list[list[str]] = []
     _success = False
-    for log in log_files:
+
+    for log in log_files.copy():
         captured: list[str] = []
         for line in log.read_text().splitlines():
             if (match := _log_line_regexp.fullmatch(line)) is not None:
                 captured.append(match.group("data"))
                 _success = True
+        if not captured:
+            # dynamically exclude files without any data
+            log_files.remove(log)
+            continue
+
         data.append(captured)
 
     if not _success:
diff --git a/tests/data/OrszagTang3D/empty.log b/tests/data/OrszagTang3D/empty.log
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/tests/test_digest.py b/tests/test_digest.py
index 785d322..c06f901 100644
--- a/tests/test_digest.py
+++ b/tests/test_digest.py
@@ -139,3 +139,29 @@ def test_digest_multiple_input(capsys):
     assert err2 == ""
 
     assert out == out2
+
+
+def test_digest_empty_file(capsys):
+    ret = main(["digest", "--dir", str(BASE_SETUP.absolute()), "--input", "empty.log"])
+    assert ret != 0
+    out, err = capsys.readouterr()
+    assert out == ""
+    assert err == "💥 Failed to parse any data\n"
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "logs",
+    [
+        ("empty.log", "idefix.0.log"),
+        ("empty.log", "idefix.1.log"),
+        # order shouldn't matter
+        ("idefix.0.log", "empty.log"),
+        ("idefix.1.log", "empty.log"),
+    ],
+)
+def test_digest_mixed_contents(capsys, logs):
+    ret = main(["digest", "--dir", str(BASE_SETUP.absolute()), "--input", *logs])
+    assert ret == 0
+    out, err = capsys.readouterr()
+    json.loads(out)  # validate output
+    assert err == ""