diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/job/process/autodetect/output/StateProcessor.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/job/process/autodetect/output/StateProcessor.java
index 1aba5303285..2c9c7bf564b 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/job/process/autodetect/output/StateProcessor.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/job/process/autodetect/output/StateProcessor.java
@@ -73,8 +73,11 @@ public class StateProcessor extends AbstractComponent {
                 // No more zero bytes in this block
                 break;
             }
-            // No validation - assume the native process has formatted the state correctly
-            persist(jobId, bytesRef.slice(splitFrom, nextZeroByte - splitFrom));
+            // Ignore completely empty chunks
+            if (nextZeroByte > splitFrom) {
+                // No validation - assume the native process has formatted the state correctly
+                persist(jobId, bytesRef.slice(splitFrom, nextZeroByte - splitFrom));
+            }
             splitFrom = nextZeroByte + 1;
         }
         if (splitFrom >= bytesRef.length()) {
diff --git a/plugin/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/job/process/autodetect/output/StateProcessorTests.java b/plugin/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/job/process/autodetect/output/StateProcessorTests.java
index 94785055cf5..70cfb6f8262 100644
--- a/plugin/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/job/process/autodetect/output/StateProcessorTests.java
+++ b/plugin/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/job/process/autodetect/output/StateProcessorTests.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import java.util.List;
 import static org.mockito.Matchers.any;
 import static org.mockito.Matchers.eq;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.never;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.spy;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.times;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.verify;
@@ -51,13 +52,13 @@ public class StateProcessorTests extends ESTestCase {
     private static final int LARGE_DOC_SIZE = 1000000;
 
     private Client client;
-    private ActionFuture<BulkResponse> bulkResponseFuture;
     private StateProcessor stateProcessor;
 
     @Before
     public void initialize() throws IOException {
         client = mock(Client.class);
-        bulkResponseFuture = mock(ActionFuture.class);
+        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
+        ActionFuture<BulkResponse> bulkResponseFuture = mock(ActionFuture.class);
         stateProcessor = spy(new StateProcessor(Settings.EMPTY, client));
         when(client.bulk(any(BulkRequest.class))).thenReturn(bulkResponseFuture);
     }
@@ -87,12 +88,12 @@ public class StateProcessorTests extends ESTestCase {
 
         stateProcessor.process("_id", stream);
 
-        verify(stateProcessor, times(6)).persist(eq("_id"), any());
+        verify(stateProcessor, never()).persist(eq("_id"), any());
         Mockito.verifyNoMoreInteractions(client);
     }
 
     public void testStateReadGivenConsecutiveSpacesFollowedByZeroByte() throws IOException {
-        String zeroBytes = "        \0";
+        String zeroBytes = "        \n\0";
         ByteArrayInputStream stream = new ByteArrayInputStream(zeroBytes.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
 
         stateProcessor.process("_id", stream);