diff --git a/intern/cycles/scene/image_vdb.cpp b/intern/cycles/scene/image_vdb.cpp
index 9a205be9f38..653ed441610 100644
--- a/intern/cycles/scene/image_vdb.cpp
+++ b/intern/cycles/scene/image_vdb.cpp
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ bool VDBImageLoader::load_metadata(const ImageDeviceFeatures &features, ImageMet
   bbox = grid->evalActiveVoxelBoundingBox();
   if (bbox.empty()) {
     metadata.type = IMAGE_DATA_TYPE_NANOVDB_EMPTY;
-    metadata.byte_size = 0;
+    metadata.byte_size = 1;
     grid.reset();
     return true;
   }
@@ -115,12 +115,16 @@ bool VDBImageLoader::load_metadata(const ImageDeviceFeatures &features, ImageMet
 #endif
 }
 
-bool VDBImageLoader::load_pixels(const ImageMetaData & /*metadata*/,
+bool VDBImageLoader::load_pixels(const ImageMetaData &metadata,
                                  void *pixels,
                                  const size_t /*pixels_size*/,
                                  const bool /*associate_alpha*/)
 {
 #ifdef WITH_NANOVDB
+  if (metadata.type == IMAGE_DATA_TYPE_NANOVDB_EMPTY) {
+    memset(pixels, 0, metadata.byte_size);
+    return true;
+  }
   if (nanogrid) {
     memcpy(pixels, nanogrid.data(), nanogrid.size());
     return true;
diff --git a/intern/cycles/scene/volume.cpp b/intern/cycles/scene/volume.cpp
index 25ffe8e7884..a39743def66 100644
--- a/intern/cycles/scene/volume.cpp
+++ b/intern/cycles/scene/volume.cpp
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 #include "util/nanovdb.h"
 #include "util/path.h"
 #include "util/progress.h"
+#include "util/texture.h"
 #include "util/types.h"
 
 #include "bvh/octree.h"
@@ -487,6 +488,7 @@ void GeometryManager::create_volume_mesh(const Scene *scene, Volume *volume, Pro
     /* Create NanoVDB grid handle from texture memory. */
     device_texture *texture = handle.image_memory();
     if (texture == nullptr || texture->host_pointer == nullptr ||
+        texture->info.data_type == IMAGE_DATA_TYPE_NANOVDB_EMPTY ||
         !is_nanovdb_type(texture->info.data_type))
     {
       continue;