diff --git a/bilby/core/sampler/ptemcee.py b/bilby/core/sampler/ptemcee.py
index 531fb102a0614015f4053e7326b87c5ec923dbfe..013d37580f99c7715579f3b6ccbe151298f1a12d 100644
--- a/bilby/core/sampler/ptemcee.py
+++ b/bilby/core/sampler/ptemcee.py
@@ -414,7 +414,11 @@ class Ptemcee(MCMCSampler):
             # This is a very ugly hack to support numpy>=1.24
             ptemcee.sampler.np.float = float
 
-        if os.path.isfile(self.resume_file) and self.resume is True:
+        if (
+            os.path.isfile(self.resume_file) and
+            os.path.getsize(self.resume_file) and
+            self.resume is True
+        ):
             import dill
 
             logger.info(f"Resume data {self.resume_file} found")