diff --git a/src/caosdb/yamlapi.py b/src/caosdb/yamlapi.py
index 861d5d22a3bc183698fe6b11681c24b13b82687d..69eef001a7bfddd0f1462a65b0c343fd4ab9e7de 100644
--- a/src/caosdb/yamlapi.py
+++ b/src/caosdb/yamlapi.py
@@ -137,6 +137,7 @@ def insert_yaml_file(yamlfilename, simulate=False):
                   This function is deprecated and will be removed with the next release.
                   Please use caosdb-advanced-user-tools/models/data_model.py for a
                   similar functionality.""", DeprecationWarning)
+    con = get_connection()
     prs = etree.XMLParser(remove_blank_text=True)
     sent_xml = etree.tostring(
         etree.fromstring(