Error: model 'qwen2.5:latest' not found — ollama show, ollama rm and ollama cp did not find the name among the models already on the server, as ollama list shows them. The usual cause is a missing tag: qwen2.5 means qwen2.5:latest, and you have qwen2.5:0.5b. Copy the full name from ollama list.

ollama show printed the name with :latest added, while ollama rm and ollama cp printed the name as typed; compare it with the NAME column of ollama list. In the test none of the three tried a download, while ollama run with an unknown name did try to pull.

The error

PS> ollama list
NAME                 ID              SIZE      MODIFIED
qwen3:0.6b           7df6b6e09427    522 MB    13 minutes ago
tutor3:latest        1513e8be03b6    397 MB    16 minutes ago
tutor2:latest        c950aeec7a6c    397 MB    16 minutes ago
tutor:latest         c950aeec7a6c    397 MB    16 minutes ago
qwen2.5:0.5b         a8b0c5157701    397 MB    20 minutes ago
all-minilm:latest    1b226e2802db    45 MB     20 minutes ago
PS> ollama show qwen2.5
Error: model 'qwen2.5:latest' not found
exit code: 1

The same check in the other two commands, with a slightly different quote style in cp:

PS> ollama rm tutor5
Error: model 'tutor5' not found
exit code: 1
PS> ollama cp tutor9 tutor-copy
Error: model "tutor9" not found
exit code: 1

Why it happens

Every local model has a name and a tag, and a name typed without a tag was looked up as :latest: ollama show qwen2.5 asked for qwen2.5:latest, which this server did not have. A model pulled as qwen2.5:0.5b is listed under that tag only. A tag that exists in the registry but not on your machine fails the same way: ollama show qwen2.5:3b gave model 'qwen2.5:3b' not found.

Case was not the problem in the test: ollama show Qwen2.5:0.5B found qwen2.5:0.5b and printed its details. And ollama run behaves differently from these three: for a name it does not have, it tries to pull it, so a typo there ends in Error: pull model manifest: file does not exist instead.

The fix

PS> ollama cp tutor tutor-copy
copied 'tutor' to 'tutor-copy'
success
exit code: 0
PS> ollama rm tutor-copy
deleted 'tutor-copy'
exit code: 0

With names copied from ollama list the commands work. For a model with a tag other than latest, type the tag: ollama show qwen2.5:0.5b. If the model really is not on the server, ollama pull it first, with the exact tag you want.

How it was reproduced

Ollama 0.40.14 on Windows 11, the CLI pointed with OLLAMA_HOST at a separate test server started with ollama serve on 127.0.0.1:15190 with its own models folder. The names tutor, tutor5, tutor9 and tutor-copy are the test's own; tutor was created earlier from qwen2.5:0.5b with a Modelfile. Each command ran from a PowerShell script that printed its exit code.

Frequently asked

Why does ollama show say model not found when ollama list has it?
The tag differs. A name without a tag means :latest, so ollama show qwen2.5 looks for qwen2.5:latest while the list has qwen2.5:0.5b. Copy the full name from ollama list.
Does ollama rm or ollama cp download a missing model?
Not in the test: both answered model not found and exited with code 1 without trying a download. ollama run with an unknown name did try to pull it.
Are Ollama model names case-sensitive?
Not in the test: ollama show Qwen2.5:0.5B found the model stored as qwen2.5:0.5b. A wrong or missing tag is the usual cause of model not found.

More decoded errors in the Fixes category. The API's version of this answer, HTTP 404 with model 'nope' not found, is in 'model not found' from the API, and the ollama run case in 'pull model manifest: file does not exist'.