Happens for example on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zhuyifei1999-test.png.
Using ApiSandbox:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ApiSandbox#action=delete&format=json&title=File%3AZhuyifei1999-test.png&reason=test&token=REDACTED%2B%5C
creates:
{
"error": {
"code": "missingtitle",
"info": "The page you specified doesn't exist.",
"*": "See https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/api.php for API usage. Subscribe to the mediawiki-api-announce mailing list at <https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-api-announce> for notice of API deprecations and breaking changes."
},
"servedby": "mw1283"
}Using action=delete via index.php (link is in "delete all" in the "File history" section) https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Zhuyifei1999-test.png&action=delete works fine, but does not create a delete log entry (separate bug I guess)
Happens also to bots (because of all the race conditions happening in the Wikipedia Zero abuse fighting):
WARNING: API error missingtitle: The page you specified doesn't exist.
API Error: query=
u"{u'maxlag': ['5'], 'title': [FilePage(File:Kxv cv wxcv xcv wxc.xcf)], u'format': [u'json'], 'reason': [u'This file contains [[COM:CSD#F9', u'embedded data]]: After 452.6KiB (463489 bytes, via Ending,Magic): Identified type: application/x-rar (RAR archive data, v4, os: Win32)'], u'assert': [u'user'], 'token': [u'5077afe6a0dbe62233a9c036bb289639593c890e+\\\\'], 'action': [u'delete']}"
response=
{u'servedby': u'mw1276', u'error': {u'info': u"The page you specified doesn't exist.", u'code': u'missingtitle', u'help': u'See https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/api.php for API usage. Subscribe to the mediawiki-api-announce mailing list at <https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-api-announce> for notice of API deprecations and breaking changes.'}}