The input file doesn't contain any instructions or data, i.e. there is
nothing to disassemble.
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Some file formats allow the situation when the file is not empty but it doesn't contain anything to disassemble. For example, COFF/OMF/EXE formats could contain a file header which just declares that there are no executable sections in the file.
There could be type information, compiler options and other auxiliary information in the file. This is the reason why the file doesn't look empty but IDA doesn't find anything to disassemble.