diff --git a/candle-examples/examples/bert/main.rs b/candle-examples/examples/bert/main.rs
index 9d0eccdf..70592013 100644
--- a/candle-examples/examples/bert/main.rs
+++ b/candle-examples/examples/bert/main.rs
@@ -86,9 +86,8 @@ impl Args {
         let config: Config = serde_json::from_str(&config)?;
         let tokenizer = Tokenizer::from_file(tokenizer_filename).map_err(E::msg)?;
 
-        let weights = unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(weights_filename)? };
-        let weights = weights.deserialize()?;
-        let vb = VarBuilder::from_safetensors(vec![weights], DTYPE, &device);
+        let vb =
+            unsafe { VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&[weights_filename], DTYPE, &device)? };
         let model = BertModel::load(vb, &config)?;
         Ok((model, tokenizer))
     }
diff --git a/candle-examples/examples/bigcode/main.rs b/candle-examples/examples/bigcode/main.rs
index 5f17109e..bf8dd24c 100644
--- a/candle-examples/examples/bigcode/main.rs
+++ b/candle-examples/examples/bigcode/main.rs
@@ -138,18 +138,9 @@ fn main() -> Result<()> {
     println!("retrieved the files in {:?}", start.elapsed());
     let tokenizer = Tokenizer::from_file(tokenizer_filename).map_err(E::msg)?;
 
-    let weights = filenames
-        .iter()
-        .map(|f| Ok(unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(f)? }))
-        .collect::<Result<Vec<_>>>()?;
-    let weights = weights
-        .iter()
-        .map(|f| Ok(f.deserialize()?))
-        .collect::<Result<Vec<_>>>()?;
-
     let start = std::time::Instant::now();
     let device = candle_examples::device(args.cpu)?;
-    let vb = VarBuilder::from_safetensors(weights, DType::F32, &device);
+    let vb = unsafe { VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&filenames, DType::F32, &device)? };
     let config = Config::starcoder_1b();
     let model = GPTBigCode::load(vb, config)?;
     println!("loaded the model in {:?}", start.elapsed());
diff --git a/candle-examples/examples/dinov2/main.rs b/candle-examples/examples/dinov2/main.rs
index d3adb37c..6b3edeb4 100644
--- a/candle-examples/examples/dinov2/main.rs
+++ b/candle-examples/examples/dinov2/main.rs
@@ -42,9 +42,7 @@ pub fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
         }
         Some(model) => model.into(),
     };
-    let weights = unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(model_file)? };
-    let weights = weights.deserialize()?;
-    let vb = VarBuilder::from_safetensors(vec![weights], DType::F32, &device);
+    let vb = unsafe { VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&[model_file], DType::F32, &device)? };
     let model = dinov2::vit_small(vb)?;
     println!("model built");
     let logits = model.forward(&image.unsqueeze(0)?)?;
diff --git a/candle-examples/examples/efficientnet/main.rs b/candle-examples/examples/efficientnet/main.rs
index 1e45e301..0e4a2864 100644
--- a/candle-examples/examples/efficientnet/main.rs
+++ b/candle-examples/examples/efficientnet/main.rs
@@ -68,9 +68,7 @@ pub fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
         }
         Some(model) => model.into(),
     };
-    let weights = unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(model_file)? };
-    let weights = weights.deserialize()?;
-    let vb = VarBuilder::from_safetensors(vec![weights], DType::F32, &device);
+    let vb = unsafe { VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&[model_file], DType::F32, &device)? };
     let cfg = match args.which {
         Which::B0 => MBConvConfig::b0(),
         Which::B1 => MBConvConfig::b1(),
diff --git a/candle-examples/examples/falcon/main.rs b/candle-examples/examples/falcon/main.rs
index b0973d64..1cef25a8 100644
--- a/candle-examples/examples/falcon/main.rs
+++ b/candle-examples/examples/falcon/main.rs
@@ -177,21 +177,12 @@ fn main() -> Result<()> {
     let tokenizer = Tokenizer::from_file(tokenizer_filename).map_err(E::msg)?;
 
     let start = std::time::Instant::now();
-    let weights = filenames
-        .iter()
-        .map(|f| Ok(unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(f)? }))
-        .collect::<Result<Vec<_>>>()?;
-    let weights = weights
-        .iter()
-        .map(|f| Ok(f.deserialize()?))
-        .collect::<Result<Vec<_>>>()?;
-
     let dtype = if args.use_f32 {
         DType::F32
     } else {
         DType::BF16
     };
-    let vb = VarBuilder::from_safetensors(weights, dtype, &device);
+    let vb = unsafe { VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&filenames, dtype, &device)? };
     let config = Config::falcon7b();
     config.validate()?;
     let model = Falcon::load(vb, config)?;
diff --git a/candle-examples/examples/llama/main.rs b/candle-examples/examples/llama/main.rs
index b2d7d938..4bf91d92 100644
--- a/candle-examples/examples/llama/main.rs
+++ b/candle-examples/examples/llama/main.rs
@@ -172,17 +172,9 @@ fn main() -> Result<()> {
             }
 
             println!("building the model");
-            let handles = filenames
-                .iter()
-                .map(|f| Ok(unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(f.as_path())? }))
-                .collect::<Result<Vec<_>>>()?;
-            let tensors: Vec<_> = handles
-                .iter()
-                .map(|h| Ok(h.deserialize()?))
-                .collect::<Result<Vec<_>>>()?;
             let cache = model::Cache::new(!args.no_kv_cache, dtype, &config, &device)?;
 
-            let vb = VarBuilder::from_safetensors(tensors, dtype, &device);
+            let vb = unsafe { VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&filenames, dtype, &device)? };
             (Llama::load(vb, &cache, &config)?, tokenizer_filename, cache)
         }
     };
diff --git a/candle-examples/examples/musicgen/main.rs b/candle-examples/examples/musicgen/main.rs
index 0fae67b5..a39cfec2 100644
--- a/candle-examples/examples/musicgen/main.rs
+++ b/candle-examples/examples/musicgen/main.rs
@@ -73,9 +73,7 @@ fn main() -> Result<()> {
             ))
             .get("model.safetensors")?,
     };
-    let model = unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(model)? };
-    let model = model.deserialize()?;
-    let vb = VarBuilder::from_safetensors(vec![model], DTYPE, &device);
+    let vb = unsafe { VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&[model], DTYPE, &device)? };
     let config = GenConfig::small();
     let mut model = MusicgenForConditionalGeneration::load(vb, config)?;
 
diff --git a/candle-examples/examples/phi/main.rs b/candle-examples/examples/phi/main.rs
index 25c7db98..3b1e7dc1 100644
--- a/candle-examples/examples/phi/main.rs
+++ b/candle-examples/examples/phi/main.rs
@@ -149,18 +149,9 @@ fn main() -> Result<()> {
     println!("retrieved the files in {:?}", start.elapsed());
     let tokenizer = Tokenizer::from_file(tokenizer_filename).map_err(E::msg)?;
 
-    let weights = filenames
-        .iter()
-        .map(|f| Ok(unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(f)? }))
-        .collect::<Result<Vec<_>>>()?;
-    let weights = weights
-        .iter()
-        .map(|f| Ok(f.deserialize()?))
-        .collect::<Result<Vec<_>>>()?;
-
     let start = std::time::Instant::now();
     let device = candle_examples::device(args.cpu)?;
-    let vb = VarBuilder::from_safetensors(weights, DType::F32, &device);
+    let vb = unsafe { VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&filenames, DType::F32, &device)? };
     let config = Config::v1_5();
     let model = Model::new(&config, vb)?;
     println!("loaded the model in {:?}", start.elapsed());
diff --git a/candle-examples/examples/segment-anything/main.rs b/candle-examples/examples/segment-anything/main.rs
index 3d9898b6..71abe116 100644
--- a/candle-examples/examples/segment-anything/main.rs
+++ b/candle-examples/examples/segment-anything/main.rs
@@ -82,9 +82,7 @@ pub fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
             api.get(filename)?
         }
     };
-    let weights = unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(model)? };
-    let weights = weights.deserialize()?;
-    let vb = VarBuilder::from_safetensors(vec![weights], DType::F32, &device);
+    let vb = unsafe { VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&[model], DType::F32, &device)? };
     let sam = if args.use_tiny {
         sam::Sam::new_tiny(vb)? // tiny vit_t
     } else {
diff --git a/candle-examples/examples/whisper/main.rs b/candle-examples/examples/whisper/main.rs
index c71d562a..0aa4db41 100644
--- a/candle-examples/examples/whisper/main.rs
+++ b/candle-examples/examples/whisper/main.rs
@@ -481,9 +481,8 @@ fn main() -> Result<()> {
     let mel = Tensor::from_vec(mel, (1, m::N_MELS, mel_len / m::N_MELS), &device)?;
     println!("loaded mel: {:?}", mel.dims());
 
-    let weights = unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(weights_filename)? };
-    let weights = weights.deserialize()?;
-    let vb = VarBuilder::from_safetensors(vec![weights], m::DTYPE, &device);
+    let vb =
+        unsafe { VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&[weights_filename], m::DTYPE, &device)? };
     let config: Config = serde_json::from_str(&std::fs::read_to_string(config_filename)?)?;
     let mut model = Whisper::load(&vb, config)?;
 
diff --git a/candle-examples/examples/wuerstchen/main.rs b/candle-examples/examples/wuerstchen/main.rs
index 95f3b8f4..40b43c1d 100644
--- a/candle-examples/examples/wuerstchen/main.rs
+++ b/candle-examples/examples/wuerstchen/main.rs
@@ -287,10 +287,10 @@ fn run(args: Args) -> Result<()> {
         )?;
 
         let prior = {
-            let prior_weights = ModelFile::Prior.get(prior_weights)?;
-            let weights = unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(prior_weights)? };
-            let weights = weights.deserialize()?;
-            let vb = candle_nn::VarBuilder::from_safetensors(vec![weights], DType::F32, &device);
+            let file = ModelFile::Prior.get(prior_weights)?;
+            let vb = unsafe {
+                candle_nn::VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&[file], DType::F32, &device)?
+            };
             wuerstchen::prior::WPrior::new(
                 /* c_in */ PRIOR_CIN,
                 /* c */ 1536,
@@ -324,10 +324,10 @@ fn run(args: Args) -> Result<()> {
 
     println!("Building the vqgan.");
     let vqgan = {
-        let vqgan_weights = ModelFile::VqGan.get(vqgan_weights)?;
-        let weights = unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(vqgan_weights)? };
-        let weights = weights.deserialize()?;
-        let vb = candle_nn::VarBuilder::from_safetensors(vec![weights], DType::F32, &device);
+        let file = ModelFile::VqGan.get(vqgan_weights)?;
+        let vb = unsafe {
+            candle_nn::VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&[file], DType::F32, &device)?
+        };
         wuerstchen::paella_vq::PaellaVQ::new(vb)?
     };
 
@@ -335,10 +335,10 @@ fn run(args: Args) -> Result<()> {
 
     // https://huggingface.co/warp-ai/wuerstchen/blob/main/decoder/config.json
     let decoder = {
-        let decoder_weights = ModelFile::Decoder.get(decoder_weights)?;
-        let weights = unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(decoder_weights)? };
-        let weights = weights.deserialize()?;
-        let vb = candle_nn::VarBuilder::from_safetensors(vec![weights], DType::F32, &device);
+        let file = ModelFile::Decoder.get(decoder_weights)?;
+        let vb = unsafe {
+            candle_nn::VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&[file], DType::F32, &device)?
+        };
         wuerstchen::diffnext::WDiffNeXt::new(
             /* c_in */ DECODER_CIN,
             /* c_out */ DECODER_CIN,
diff --git a/candle-examples/examples/yolo-v3/main.rs b/candle-examples/examples/yolo-v3/main.rs
index ecf75bdf..5b1937ac 100644
--- a/candle-examples/examples/yolo-v3/main.rs
+++ b/candle-examples/examples/yolo-v3/main.rs
@@ -146,9 +146,7 @@ pub fn main() -> Result<()> {
 
     // Create the model and load the weights from the file.
     let model = args.model()?;
-    let weights = unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(model)? };
-    let weights = weights.deserialize()?;
-    let vb = VarBuilder::from_safetensors(vec![weights], DType::F32, &Device::Cpu);
+    let vb = unsafe { VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&[model], DType::F32, &Device::Cpu)? };
     let config = args.config()?;
     let darknet = darknet::parse_config(config)?;
     let model = darknet.build_model(vb)?;
diff --git a/candle-examples/examples/yolo-v8/main.rs b/candle-examples/examples/yolo-v8/main.rs
index dc709db4..af8cf98a 100644
--- a/candle-examples/examples/yolo-v8/main.rs
+++ b/candle-examples/examples/yolo-v8/main.rs
@@ -381,9 +381,7 @@ pub fn run<T: Task>(args: Args) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
         Which::X => Multiples::x(),
     };
     let model = args.model()?;
-    let weights = unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(model)? };
-    let weights = weights.deserialize()?;
-    let vb = VarBuilder::from_safetensors(vec![weights], DType::F32, &device);
+    let vb = unsafe { VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&[model], DType::F32, &device)? };
     let model = T::load(vb, multiples)?;
     println!("model loaded");
     for image_name in args.images.iter() {
diff --git a/candle-transformers/src/models/stable_diffusion/mod.rs b/candle-transformers/src/models/stable_diffusion/mod.rs
index c6f1b904..7fdedaae 100644
--- a/candle-transformers/src/models/stable_diffusion/mod.rs
+++ b/candle-transformers/src/models/stable_diffusion/mod.rs
@@ -255,9 +255,8 @@ impl StableDiffusionConfig {
         device: &Device,
         dtype: DType,
     ) -> Result<vae::AutoEncoderKL> {
-        let weights = unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(vae_weights)? };
-        let weights = weights.deserialize()?;
-        let vs_ae = nn::VarBuilder::from_safetensors(vec![weights], dtype, device);
+        let vs_ae =
+            unsafe { nn::VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&[vae_weights], dtype, device)? };
         // https://huggingface.co/runwayml/stable-diffusion-v1-5/blob/main/vae/config.json
         let autoencoder = vae::AutoEncoderKL::new(vs_ae, 3, 3, self.autoencoder.clone())?;
         Ok(autoencoder)
@@ -271,9 +270,8 @@ impl StableDiffusionConfig {
         use_flash_attn: bool,
         dtype: DType,
     ) -> Result<unet_2d::UNet2DConditionModel> {
-        let weights = unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(unet_weights)? };
-        let weights = weights.deserialize()?;
-        let vs_unet = nn::VarBuilder::from_safetensors(vec![weights], dtype, device);
+        let vs_unet =
+            unsafe { nn::VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&[unet_weights], dtype, device)? };
         let unet = unet_2d::UNet2DConditionModel::new(
             vs_unet,
             in_channels,
@@ -295,9 +293,7 @@ pub fn build_clip_transformer<P: AsRef<std::path::Path>>(
     device: &Device,
     dtype: DType,
 ) -> Result<clip::ClipTextTransformer> {
-    let weights = unsafe { candle::safetensors::MmapedFile::new(clip_weights)? };
-    let weights = weights.deserialize()?;
-    let vs = nn::VarBuilder::from_safetensors(vec![weights], dtype, device);
+    let vs = unsafe { nn::VarBuilder::from_mmaped_safetensors(&[clip_weights], dtype, device)? };
     let text_model = clip::ClipTextTransformer::new(vs, clip)?;
     Ok(text_model)
 }