diff --git a/helpers/caching/vae.py b/helpers/caching/vae.py
index 8b6ef5a8..be9ab9a2 100644
--- a/helpers/caching/vae.py
+++ b/helpers/caching/vae.py
@@ -86,6 +86,8 @@ def __init__(
         self.vae = vae
         self.accelerator = accelerator
         self.cache_dir = cache_dir
+        if self.cache_data_backend.type == "local":
+            self.cache_dir = os.path.abspath(self.cache_dir)
         if len(self.cache_dir) > 0 and self.cache_dir[-1] == "/":
             # Remove trailing slash
             self.cache_dir = self.cache_dir[:-1]
@@ -127,9 +129,8 @@ def debug_log(self, msg: str):
 
     def generate_vae_cache_filename(self, filepath: str) -> tuple:
         """Get the cache filename for a given image filepath and its base name."""
-        if self.instance_data_root not in filepath:
-            if self.cache_dir in filepath and filepath.endswith(".pt"):
-                return filepath, os.path.basename(filepath)
+        if filepath.endswith(".pt"):
+            return filepath, os.path.basename(filepath)
         # Extract the base name from the filepath and replace the image extension with .pt
         base_filename = os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(filepath))[0]
         if self.hash_filenames:
@@ -137,17 +138,29 @@ def generate_vae_cache_filename(self, filepath: str) -> tuple:
         base_filename = str(base_filename) + ".pt"
         # Find the subfolders the sample was in, and replace the instance_data_root with the cache_dir
         subfolders = os.path.dirname(filepath).replace(self.instance_data_root, "")
-        if len(subfolders) > 0 and subfolders[0] == "/":
+        if len(subfolders) > 0 and subfolders[0] == "/" and self.cache_dir[0] != "/":
             subfolders = subfolders[1:]
             full_filename = os.path.join(self.cache_dir, subfolders, base_filename)
+            # logger.debug(
+            #     f"full_filename: {full_filename} = os.path.join({self.cache_dir}, {subfolders}, {base_filename})"
+            # )
         else:
             full_filename = os.path.join(self.cache_dir, base_filename)
+            # logger.debug(
+            #     f"full_filename: {full_filename} = os.path.join({self.cache_dir}, {base_filename})"
+            # )
         return full_filename, base_filename
 
     def _image_filename_from_vaecache_filename(self, filepath: str) -> tuple[str, str]:
         test_filepath, _ = self.generate_vae_cache_filename(filepath)
+        result = self.vae_path_to_image_path.get(test_filepath, None)
+        if result is None:
+            logger.debug(f"Mapping: {self.vae_path_to_image_path}")
+            raise ValueError(
+                f"Could not find image path for cache file {filepath} (test_filepath: {test_filepath}). Is the map built? {True if self.vae_path_to_image_path != {} else False}"
+            )
 
-        return self.vae_path_to_image_path.get(test_filepath, None)
+        return result
 
     def build_vae_cache_filename_map(self, all_image_files: list):
         """Build a map of image filepaths to their corresponding cache filenames."""
@@ -155,6 +168,8 @@ def build_vae_cache_filename_map(self, all_image_files: list):
         self.vae_path_to_image_path = {}
         for image_file in all_image_files:
             cache_filename, _ = self.generate_vae_cache_filename(image_file)
+            if self.cache_data_backend.type == "local":
+                cache_filename = os.path.abspath(cache_filename)
             self.image_path_to_vae_path[image_file] = cache_filename
             self.vae_path_to_image_path[cache_filename] = image_file