diff --git a/pkg/modules/migration/errors.go b/pkg/modules/migration/errors.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..06b7a4112
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/modules/migration/errors.go
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+// Vikunja is a to-do list application to facilitate your life.
+// Copyright 2018-present Vikunja and contributors. All rights reserved.
+//
+// This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+// it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public Licensee as published by
+// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+// (at your option) any later version.
+//
+// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+// GNU Affero General Public Licensee for more details.
+//
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public Licensee
+// along with this program.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+package migration
+
+import (
+	"net/http"
+
+	"code.vikunja.io/api/pkg/web"
+)
+
+// ErrNotAZipFile represents a "ErrNotAZipFile" kind of error.
+type ErrNotAZipFile struct{}
+
+func (err *ErrNotAZipFile) Error() string {
+	return "The provided file is not a valid zip file"
+}
+
+// ErrCodeNotAZipFile holds the unique world-error code of this error
+const ErrCodeNotAZipFile = 14001
+
+// HTTPError holds the http error description
+func (err *ErrNotAZipFile) HTTPError() web.HTTPError {
+	return web.HTTPError{
+		HTTPCode: http.StatusBadRequest,
+		Code:     ErrCodeNotAZipFile,
+		Message:  "The provided file is not a valid zip file.",
+	}
+}
diff --git a/pkg/modules/migration/vikunja-file/vikunja.go b/pkg/modules/migration/vikunja-file/vikunja.go
index d05be1671..e64206bcf 100644
--- a/pkg/modules/migration/vikunja-file/vikunja.go
+++ b/pkg/modules/migration/vikunja-file/vikunja.go
@@ -67,6 +67,9 @@ func (v *FileMigrator) Name() string {
 func (v *FileMigrator) Migrate(user *user.User, file io.ReaderAt, size int64) error {
 	r, err := zip.NewReader(file, size)
 	if err != nil {
+		if err.Error() == "zip: not a valid zip file" {
+			return &migration.ErrNotAZipFile{}
+		}
 		return fmt.Errorf("could not open import file: %w", err)
 	}