diff --git a/producer/api/cpp/src/producer_impl.cpp b/producer/api/cpp/src/producer_impl.cpp
index 1a384abf7df2916cce0b1909847e14fa10dff12e..b47b45de465edaf79785223d79ca4e1e33142498 100644
--- a/producer/api/cpp/src/producer_impl.cpp
+++ b/producer/api/cpp/src/producer_impl.cpp
@@ -100,6 +100,9 @@ Error ProducerImpl::Send(const EventHeader& event_header,
                          bool manage_data_memory) {
     auto err = CheckProducerRequest(event_header, ingest_mode);
     if (err) {
+        if (!manage_data_memory) {
+            data.release();
+        }
         log__->Error("error checking request - " + err->Explain());
         return err;
     }
@@ -230,6 +233,7 @@ Error ProducerImpl::SendData__(const EventHeader& event_header,
     FileData data_wrapped = FileData{(uint8_t*)data};
 
     if (auto err = CheckData(ingest_mode, event_header, &data_wrapped)) {
+        data_wrapped.release();
         return err;
     }
 
diff --git a/producer/api/python/asapo_producer.pyx.in b/producer/api/python/asapo_producer.pyx.in
index 1319d9439cf139c4284f29ace8824f03b7d0d94b..4a958c741dca6982887882590219d72c6c4d5d5b 100644
--- a/producer/api/python/asapo_producer.pyx.in
+++ b/producer/api/python/asapo_producer.pyx.in
@@ -125,7 +125,6 @@ cdef class PyProducer:
             Py_XINCREF(<PyObject*>data)
         if callback != None:
             Py_XINCREF(<PyObject*>callback)
-
         return
     cdef EventHeader create_event_header(self,uint64_t id, exposed_path,user_meta,subset,ingest_mode):
         cdef EventHeader event_header
diff --git a/tests/automatic/producer/python_api/producer_api.py b/tests/automatic/producer/python_api/producer_api.py
index dd247424c2f3eb74c33f3ec0215d01e9c1dc1bd2..5b92088878129b40c048c4571871630789b165f8 100644
--- a/tests/automatic/producer/python_api/producer_api.py
+++ b/tests/automatic/producer/python_api/producer_api.py
@@ -91,8 +91,8 @@ else:
     sys.exit(1)
 
 try:
-    producer.send_file(0, local_path="./not_exist", exposed_path="./whatever",
-                       ingest_mode=asapo_producer.INGEST_MODE_TRANSFER_METADATA_ONLY, callback=callback)
+    producer.send_data(0, "processed/" + stream + "/" + "file6", b"hello",
+                       ingest_mode=asapo_producer.DEFAULT_INGEST_MODE, callback=callback)
 except asapo_producer.AsapoWrongInputError as e:
     print(e)
 else: