diff --git a/crates/polars-mem-engine/src/executors/scan/ipc.rs b/crates/polars-mem-engine/src/executors/scan/ipc.rs
index 3468144ea22c..89a7a1df821f 100644
--- a/crates/polars-mem-engine/src/executors/scan/ipc.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-mem-engine/src/executors/scan/ipc.rs
@@ -41,7 +41,12 @@ impl IpcExec {
                 polars_io::pl_async::get_runtime().block_on_potential_spawn(self.read_async())?
             })
         } else {
-            self.read_sync()?
+            self.read_sync().map_err(|e| match &self.sources {
+                ScanSources::Paths(paths) => {
+                    e.context(format!("reading paths {:?} failed", paths.as_ref()).into())
+                },
+                _ => e,
+            })?
         };
 
         if self.file_options.rechunk {
diff --git a/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/options.rs b/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/options.rs
index 4a89525ad2b7..d6e41ae71bc2 100644
--- a/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/options.rs
+++ b/crates/polars-plan/src/dsl/options.rs
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ impl Default for StrptimeOptions {
 pub enum JoinTypeOptionsIR {
     #[cfg(feature = "iejoin")]
     IEJoin(IEJoinOptions),
-    #[cfg_attr(feature = "serde", serde(skip))]
+    #[cfg_attr(all(feature = "serde", not(feature = "ir_serde")), serde(skip))]
     // Fused cross join and filter (only in in-memory engine)
     Cross { predicate: ExprIR },
 }