diff --git a/gui/cppchecklibrarydata.cpp b/gui/cppchecklibrarydata.cpp
index d1be0b5879f..d92f9512e9c 100644
--- a/gui/cppchecklibrarydata.cpp
+++ b/gui/cppchecklibrarydata.cpp
@@ -279,8 +279,12 @@ QString CppcheckLibraryData::open(QIODevice &file)
             break;
         }
     }
-
-    return QString();
+    if (xmlReader.hasError()) {
+        return xmlReader.errorString();
+    }
+    else {
+        return QString();
+    }
 }
 
 static void writeContainerFunctions(QXmlStreamWriter &xmlWriter, const QString &name, int extra, const QList<struct CppcheckLibraryData::Container::Function> &functions)