diff --git a/beetsplug/convert.py b/beetsplug/convert.py
index 536acf16e3..0c50fc73fb 100644
--- a/beetsplug/convert.py
+++ b/beetsplug/convert.py
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 import threading
 from string import Template
 
+import mediafile
 from confuse import ConfigTypeError, Optional
 
 from beets import art, config, plugins, ui, util
@@ -351,6 +352,15 @@ def convert_item(
             item = yield (item, original, converted)
             dest = item.destination(basedir=dest_dir, path_formats=path_formats)
 
+            # Ensure that desired item is readable before processing it. Needed
+            # to avoid any side-effect of the conversion (linking, keep_new,
+            # refresh) if we already know that it will fail.
+            try:
+                mediafile.MediaFile(util.syspath(item.path))
+            except mediafile.UnreadableFileError as exc:
+                self._log.error("Could not open file to convert: {0}", exc)
+                continue
+
             # When keeping the new file in the library, we first move the
             # current (pristine) file to the destination. We'll then copy it
             # back to its old path or transcode it to a new path.
diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index 43cdd12555..c5b26c2db4 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -519,6 +519,8 @@ Bug fixes:
   `requests` timeout.
 * Fix cover art resizing logic to support multiple steps of resizing
   :bug:`5151`
+* :doc:`/plugins/convert`: Fix attempt to convert and perform side-effects if
+  library file is not readable.
 
 For plugin developers: