diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index 055a67a..bd54081 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 name = "LASDatasets"
 uuid = "cc498e2a-d443-4943-8f26-2a8a0f3c7cdb"
 authors = ["BenCurran98 <b.curran@fugro.com>"]
-version = "0.3.0"
+version = "0.3.1"
 
 [deps]
 BufferedStreams = "e1450e63-4bb3-523b-b2a4-4ffa8c0fd77d"
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ TypedTables = "9d95f2ec-7b3d-5a63-8d20-e2491e220bb9"
 
 [compat]
 BufferedStreams = "1"
-ColorTypes = "0.11"
+ColorTypes = "0.11, 0.12"
 DocStringExtensions = "0.9"
 FileIO = "1"
 FixedPointNumbers = "0.8"
diff --git a/src/vlrs.jl b/src/vlrs.jl
index c757454..770de04 100644
--- a/src/vlrs.jl
+++ b/src/vlrs.jl
@@ -129,6 +129,7 @@ official_record_ids(::Type{TData}) where TData = error("Official record IDs not
 
 Get the data type associated with a particular `user_id` and `record_id`. 
 This is used to automatically parse VLR data types on reading
+**NOTE**: If the user and record ID combination hasn't been registered, will default to `Vector{UInt8}` and the *VLR* data will be returned as raw bytes.
 """
 function data_type_from_ids(user_id::String, record_id::Integer)
     registered_vlr_types = get_all_vlr_types()
@@ -139,7 +140,9 @@ function data_type_from_ids(user_id::String, record_id::Integer)
         end
     end
 
-    error("Can't find VLR data type to parse for user ID $(user_id) and record ID $(record_id)")
+    # if we can't find a registered type, just read it out as a Byte Vector
+    @warn "Can't find VLR data type to parse for user ID $(user_id) and record ID $(record_id) - reading as raw bytes"
+    return Vector{UInt8}
 end
 
 function get_all_vlr_types()
diff --git a/test/vlrs.jl b/test/vlrs.jl
index cde049a..ffa040e 100644
--- a/test/vlrs.jl
+++ b/test/vlrs.jl
@@ -136,5 +136,50 @@
         write(io, vlr)
         seek(io, 0)
         @test read(io, LasVariableLengthRecord) == vlr
+
+        # if we haven't registered a VLR type for a struct, we should only read raw bytes back out
+        struct Thing
+            a::Int
+
+            b::Float64
+        end
+
+        Base.:(==)(t1::Thing, t2::Thing) = (t1.a == t2.a) && (t1.b == t2.b)
+
+        function Base.write(io::IO, thing::Thing)
+            write(io, thing.a)
+            write(io, thing.b)
+        end
+
+        function Base.read(io::IO, ::Type{Thing})
+            a = read(io, Int)
+            b = read(io, Float64)
+            return Thing(a, b)
+        end
+
+        thing = Thing(1, 2.0)
+        # get the bytes for this thing
+        io = IOBuffer()
+        write(io, thing)
+        seek(io, 0)
+        bytes = read(io)
+
+        # create a VLR - should be able to write it but can't parse it back to a struct if we haven't registered a type
+        vlr = LasVariableLengthRecord("Thing", 0, "Can't parse!", thing)
+        
+        # make sure we can save and load
+        io = IOBuffer()
+        write(io, vlr)
+        seek(io, 0)
+        out_vlr = read(io, LasVariableLengthRecord)
+        @test get_data(out_vlr) == bytes 
+
+        # if we register a type it should be fine
+        @register_vlr_type Thing "Thing" 0
+
+        io = IOBuffer()
+        write(io, vlr)
+        seek(io, 0)
+        @test read(io, LasVariableLengthRecord) == vlr
     end
 end
\ No newline at end of file