diff --git a/lightly/api/api_workflow_upload_embeddings.py b/lightly/api/api_workflow_upload_embeddings.py
index 11ebca7f4..d01623a9c 100644
--- a/lightly/api/api_workflow_upload_embeddings.py
+++ b/lightly/api/api_workflow_upload_embeddings.py
@@ -41,7 +41,10 @@ def set_embedding_id_to_latest(self):
             self._embeddings_api.get_embeddings_by_dataset_id(
                 dataset_id=self.dataset_id
             )
-        self.embedding_id = embeddings_on_server[-1].id
+        if len(embeddings_on_server) == 0:
+            raise RuntimeError(f"There are no known embeddings for dataset_id {self.dataset_id}.")
+        # return first entry as the API returns newest first
+        self.embedding_id = embeddings_on_server[0].id
 
     def get_embedding_by_name(
             self, name: str, ignore_suffix: bool = True
diff --git a/tests/api_workflow/mocked_api_workflow_client.py b/tests/api_workflow/mocked_api_workflow_client.py
index ad7f2a7dd..14ecdc1b6 100644
--- a/tests/api_workflow/mocked_api_workflow_client.py
+++ b/tests/api_workflow/mocked_api_workflow_client.py
@@ -173,9 +173,9 @@ def __init__(self, api_client):
         self.embeddings = [
             DatasetEmbeddingData(
                 id="embedding_id_xyz",
-                name="embedding_name_xxyyzz",
+                name="embedding_newest",
                 is_processed=True,
-                created_at=0,
+                created_at=1111111,
             ),
             DatasetEmbeddingData(
                 id="embedding_id_xyz_2",
diff --git a/tests/api_workflow/test_api_workflow_upload_embeddings.py b/tests/api_workflow/test_api_workflow_upload_embeddings.py
index 30797770e..be8fc183d 100644
--- a/tests/api_workflow/test_api_workflow_upload_embeddings.py
+++ b/tests/api_workflow/test_api_workflow_upload_embeddings.py
@@ -89,6 +89,12 @@ def test_upload_comma_filenames(self):
 
     def test_set_embedding_id_default(self):
         self.api_workflow_client.set_embedding_id_to_latest()
+        self.assertEqual(self.api_workflow_client.embedding_id, 'embedding_id_xyz')
+    
+    def test_set_embedding_id_no_embeddings(self):
+        self.api_workflow_client._embeddings_api.embeddings = []
+        with self.assertRaises(RuntimeError):
+            self.api_workflow_client.set_embedding_id_to_latest()
 
     def test_upload_existing_embedding(self):