huggingface · DN6 · May 26, 2025 · Apr 23, 2025 · Apr 23, 2025 · Apr 23, 2025
diff --git a/src/diffusers/models/auto_model.py b/src/diffusers/models/auto_model.py
@@ -12,13 +12,16 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-import importlib
 import os
 from typing import Optional, Union
 
 from huggingface_hub.utils import validate_hf_hub_args
 
 from ..configuration_utils import ConfigMixin
+from ..utils import logging
+
+
+logger = logging.get_logger(__name__)
 
 
 class AutoModel(ConfigMixin):
@@ -152,15 +155,50 @@ def from_pretrained(cls, pretrained_model_or_path: Optional[Union[str, os.PathLi
             "token": token,
             "local_files_only": local_files_only,
             "revision": revision,
-            "subfolder": subfolder,
         }
 
-        config = cls.load_config(pretrained_model_or_path, **load_config_kwargs)
-        orig_class_name = config["_class_name"]
-
-        library = importlib.import_module("diffusers")
+        library = None
+        orig_class_name = None
+
+        # Always attempt to fetch model_index.json first
+        try:
+            cls.config_name = "model_index.json"
+            config = cls.load_config(pretrained_model_or_path, **load_config_kwargs)
+
+            if subfolder is not None and subfolder in config:
+                library, orig_class_name = config[subfolder]
+                load_config_kwargs.update({"subfolder": subfolder})
+
+        except EnvironmentError as e:
+            logger.debug(e)
+
+        # Unable to load from model_index.json so fallback to loading from config
+        if library is None and orig_class_name is None:
+            cls.config_name = "config.json"
+            config = cls.load_config(pretrained_model_or_path, subfolder=subfolder, **load_config_kwargs)
+
+            if "_class_name" in config:
+                # If we find a class name in the config, we can try to load the model as a diffusers model
+                orig_class_name = config["_class_name"]
+                library = "diffusers"
+                load_config_kwargs.update({"subfolder": subfolder})
+            elif "model_type" in config:
+                orig_class_name = "AutoModel"
+                library = "transformers"
+                load_config_kwargs.update({"subfolder": "" if subfolder is None else subfolder})
+            else:
+                raise ValueError(f"Couldn't find model associated with the config file at {pretrained_model_or_path}.")
+
+        from ..pipelines.pipeline_loading_utils import ALL_IMPORTABLE_CLASSES, get_class_obj_and_candidates
+
+        model_cls, _ = get_class_obj_and_candidates(
+            library_name=library,
+            class_name=orig_class_name,
+            importable_classes=ALL_IMPORTABLE_CLASSES,
+            pipelines=None,
+            is_pipeline_module=False,
+        )
 
-        model_cls = getattr(library, orig_class_name, None)
         if model_cls is None:
             raise ValueError(f"AutoModel can't find a model linked to {orig_class_name}.")
 

diff --git a/src/diffusers/pipelines/pipeline_loading_utils.py b/src/diffusers/pipelines/pipeline_loading_utils.py
@@ -335,14 +335,14 @@ def get_class_obj_and_candidates(
     library_name, class_name, importable_classes, pipelines, is_pipeline_module, component_name=None, cache_dir=None
 ):
     """Simple helper method to retrieve class object of module as well as potential parent class objects"""
-    component_folder = os.path.join(cache_dir, component_name)
+    component_folder = os.path.join(cache_dir, component_name) if component_name and cache_dir else None
 
     if is_pipeline_module:
         pipeline_module = getattr(pipelines, library_name)
 
         class_obj = getattr(pipeline_module, class_name)
         class_candidates = dict.fromkeys(importable_classes.keys(), class_obj)
-    elif os.path.isfile(os.path.join(component_folder, library_name + ".py")):
+    elif component_folder and os.path.isfile(os.path.join(component_folder, library_name + ".py")):
         # load custom component
         class_obj = get_class_from_dynamic_module(
             component_folder, module_file=library_name + ".py", class_name=class_name

diff --git a/tests/models/test_models_auto.py b/tests/models/test_models_auto.py
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+import unittest
+from unittest.mock import patch
+
+from transformers import CLIPTextModel, LongformerModel
+
+from diffusers.models import AutoModel, UNet2DConditionModel
+
+
+class TestAutoModel(unittest.TestCase):
+    @patch(
+        "diffusers.models.AutoModel.load_config",
+        side_effect=[EnvironmentError("File not found"), {"_class_name": "UNet2DConditionModel"}],
+    )
+    def test_load_from_config_diffusers_with_subfolder(self, mock_load_config):
+        model = AutoModel.from_pretrained("hf-internal-testing/tiny-stable-diffusion-torch", subfolder="unet")
+        assert isinstance(model, UNet2DConditionModel)
+
+    @patch(
+        "diffusers.models.AutoModel.load_config",
+        side_effect=[EnvironmentError("File not found"), {"model_type": "clip_text_model"}],
+    )
+    def test_load_from_config_transformers_with_subfolder(self, mock_load_config):
+        model = AutoModel.from_pretrained("hf-internal-testing/tiny-stable-diffusion-torch", subfolder="text_encoder")
+        assert isinstance(model, CLIPTextModel)
+
+    def test_load_from_config_without_subfolder(self):
+        model = AutoModel.from_pretrained("hf-internal-testing/tiny-random-longformer")
+        assert isinstance(model, LongformerModel)
+
+    def test_load_from_model_index(self):
+        model = AutoModel.from_pretrained("hf-internal-testing/tiny-stable-diffusion-torch", subfolder="text_encoder")
+        assert isinstance(model, CLIPTextModel)