diff --git a/packages/devtools_app/lib/src/screens/network/network_controller.dart b/packages/devtools_app/lib/src/screens/network/network_controller.dart
index 548fb868f86..3137680fbdd 100644
--- a/packages/devtools_app/lib/src/screens/network/network_controller.dart
+++ b/packages/devtools_app/lib/src/screens/network/network_controller.dart
@@ -173,7 +173,7 @@ class NetworkController extends DisposableController
         await maybeLoadOfflineData(
           NetworkScreen.id,
           createData: (json) => OfflineNetworkData.fromJson(json),
-          shouldLoad: (data) => data != null,
+          shouldLoad: (data) => !data.isEmpty,
           loadData: (data) => loadOfflineData(data),
         );
       }
diff --git a/packages/devtools_app/lib/src/screens/network/offline_network_data.dart b/packages/devtools_app/lib/src/screens/network/offline_network_data.dart
index ea9803c2907..cc2288eca1e 100644
--- a/packages/devtools_app/lib/src/screens/network/offline_network_data.dart
+++ b/packages/devtools_app/lib/src/screens/network/offline_network_data.dart
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import 'dart:convert';
 import 'package:devtools_shared/devtools_shared.dart';
 
 import '../../shared/http/http_request_data.dart';
+import '../../shared/primitives/utils.dart';
 
 /// Class to encapsulate offline data for the [NetworkController].
 /// It is responsible for serializing and deserializing offline network data.
@@ -36,6 +37,7 @@ class OfflineNetworkData with Serializable {
       recording: json['recording'] as bool? ?? false,
     );
   }
+  bool get isEmpty => requests.isNullOrEmpty;
 
   /// List of current [DartIOHttpRequestData] network requests.
   final List<DartIOHttpRequestData> requests;