Error when generating invites

[tymaster50]

Getting this error running Ubuntu 24.04 VPS, Jellyfin is on the same system

026-01-21 20:22:21 ERROR    discord.app_commands.tree Ignoring exception in command 'invite'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/requests/models.py", line 974, in json
    return complexjson.loads(self.text, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/json/__init__.py", line 346, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/json/decoder.py", line 337, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/json/decoder.py", line 355, in raw_decode
    raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/discord/app_commands/commands.py", line 857, in _do_call
    return await self._callback(self.binding, interaction, **params)  # type: ignore
  File "/app/app/bot/cogs/app.py", line 380, in jellyfininvite
    if await self.addtojellyfin(username, password, interaction.response):
  File "/app/app/bot/cogs/app.py", line 230, in addtojellyfin
    if not jelly.verify_username(JELLYFIN_SERVER_URL, JELLYFIN_API_KEY, username):
  File "/app/app/bot/helper/jellyfinhelper.py", line 102, in verify_username
    users = get_users(jellyfin_url, jellyfin_api_key)
  File "/app/app/bot/helper/jellyfinhelper.py", line 145, in get_users
    return response.json()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/requests/models.py", line 978, in json
    raise RequestsJSONDecodeError(e.msg, e.doc, e.pos)
requests.exceptions.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/discord/app_commands/tree.py", line 1310, in _call
    await command._invoke_with_namespace(interaction, namespace)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/discord/app_commands/commands.py", line 883, in _invoke_with_namespace
    return await self._do_call(interaction, transformed_values)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/discord/app_commands/commands.py", line 876, in _do_call
    raise CommandInvokeError(self, e) from e
discord.app_commands.errors.CommandInvokeError: Command 'invite' raised an exception: JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

asking for help in Saltbox discord they say The membarr code is attempting to get a list of users from jellyfin, and it is expecting that list to come back in JSON format.

Instead, what comes back is empty, causing:
raise RequestsJSONDecodeError(e.msg, e.doc, e.pos)
requests.exceptions.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

is there any ay I can fix this?