diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index c9990dab4fb482c036158ac5f0f4af3f37b27381..139392f5cb00af22b8bbc6c70c217ef839c56ca6 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ minerva (12.1.6) stable; urgency=medium
   * Bug fix: logo on login page was broken with image link being full url
   * Bug fix: plugin API had sometimes problems with fetching reactions
     properly
+  * Bug fix: upload of data overlays without privileges triggers proper
+    error message also in situation when user cannot create projects
 
  -- Piotr Gawron <piotr.gawron@uni.lu>  Tue, 22 Jan 2019 14:00:00 +0200
 
diff --git a/rest-api/src/main/java/lcsb/mapviewer/api/files/FileRestImpl.java b/rest-api/src/main/java/lcsb/mapviewer/api/files/FileRestImpl.java
index c273bdf938fbe96104641fee0f67c3d8bfa67fdb..36ddf825e252c6311c711ab1b08fb9495df609c7 100644
--- a/rest-api/src/main/java/lcsb/mapviewer/api/files/FileRestImpl.java
+++ b/rest-api/src/main/java/lcsb/mapviewer/api/files/FileRestImpl.java
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 package lcsb.mapviewer.api.files;
 
-import java.util.TreeMap;
 import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.TreeMap;
 
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.ArrayUtils;
 import org.hibernate.QueryException;
@@ -12,27 +12,18 @@ import lcsb.mapviewer.api.BaseRestImpl;
 import lcsb.mapviewer.api.ObjectNotFoundException;
 import lcsb.mapviewer.common.exception.InvalidStateException;
 import lcsb.mapviewer.model.cache.UploadedFileEntry;
-import lcsb.mapviewer.model.user.PrivilegeType;
 import lcsb.mapviewer.model.user.User;
 import lcsb.mapviewer.persist.dao.cache.UploadedFileEntryDao;
 import lcsb.mapviewer.services.SecurityException;
-import lcsb.mapviewer.services.interfaces.ILayoutService;
 
 @Transactional(value = "txManager")
 public class FileRestImpl extends BaseRestImpl {
 
-  @Autowired
-  private ILayoutService overlayService;
-
   @Autowired
   private UploadedFileEntryDao uploadedFileEntryDao;
 
   public Map<String, Object> createFile(String token, String filename, String length) throws SecurityException {
     User user = getUserService().getUserByToken(token);
-    if (!getUserService().userHasPrivilege(user, PrivilegeType.ADD_MAP)
-        && overlayService.getAvailableCustomLayoutsNumber(user) == 0) {
-      throw new SecurityException("Access denied");
-    }
     UploadedFileEntry entry = new UploadedFileEntry();
     entry.setOriginalFileName(filename);
     entry.setFileContent(new byte[] {});
@@ -72,7 +63,8 @@ public class FileRestImpl extends BaseRestImpl {
     return result;
   }
 
-  public Map<String, Object> uploadContent(String token, String id, byte[] data) throws SecurityException, ObjectNotFoundException {
+  public Map<String, Object> uploadContent(String token, String id, byte[] data)
+      throws SecurityException, ObjectNotFoundException {
     User user = getUserService().getUserByToken(token);
     int fileId = Integer.valueOf(id);
     UploadedFileEntry fileEntry = uploadedFileEntryDao.getById(fileId);