diff --git a/src/lay/lay/laySalt.cc b/src/lay/lay/laySalt.cc
index 81267fa977..efb77844e1 100644
--- a/src/lay/lay/laySalt.cc
+++ b/src/lay/lay/laySalt.cc
@@ -497,25 +497,25 @@ Salt::create_grain (const SaltGrain &templ, SaltGrain &target, double timeout, t
 
   } else if (! templ.url ().empty ()) {
 
-    if (templ.url ().find ("http:") == 0 || templ.url ().find ("https:") == 0) {
+    lay::SaltParsedURL purl (templ.url ());
 
-      //  otherwise download from the URL using Git or SVN
+    if (purl.url ().find ("http:") == 0 || purl.url ().find ("https:") == 0) {
 
-      lay::SaltParsedURL purl (templ.url ());
+      //  otherwise download from the URL using Git or SVN
 
       if (purl.protocol () == Git) {
 
 #if defined(HAVE_GIT2)
-        tl::info << QObject::tr ("Downloading package from '%1' to '%2' using Git protocol ..").arg (tl::to_qstring (templ.url ())).arg (tl::to_qstring (target.path ()));
-        res = tl::GitObject::download (templ.url (), target.path (), purl.subfolder (), purl.branch (), timeout, callback);
+        tl::info << QObject::tr ("Downloading package from '%1' to '%2' using Git protocol (ref='%3', subdir='%4') ..").arg (tl::to_qstring (purl.url ())).arg (tl::to_qstring (target.path ())).arg (tl::to_qstring (purl.branch ())).arg (tl::to_qstring (purl.subfolder ()));
+        res = tl::GitObject::download (purl.url (), target.path (), purl.subfolder (), purl.branch (), timeout, callback);
 #else
         throw tl::Exception (tl::to_string (QObject::tr ("Unable to install package '%1' - git protocol not compiled in").arg (tl::to_qstring (target.name ()))));
 #endif
 
       } else if (purl.protocol () == WebDAV || purl.protocol () == DefaultProtocol) {
 
-        tl::info << QObject::tr ("Downloading package from '%1' to '%2' using SVN/WebDAV protocol ..").arg (tl::to_qstring (templ.url ())).arg (tl::to_qstring (target.path ()));
-        res = tl::WebDAVObject::download (templ.url (), target.path (), timeout, callback);
+        tl::info << QObject::tr ("Downloading package from '%1' to '%2' using SVN/WebDAV protocol ..").arg (tl::to_qstring (purl.url ())).arg (tl::to_qstring (target.path ()));
+        res = tl::WebDAVObject::download (purl.url (), target.path (), timeout, callback);
 
       }
 
diff --git a/src/tl/tl/tlGit.cc b/src/tl/tl/tlGit.cc
index 050243abc5..6810b07ea6 100644
--- a/src/tl/tl/tlGit.cc
+++ b/src/tl/tl/tlGit.cc
@@ -384,9 +384,20 @@ GitObject::read (const std::string &org_url, const std::string &org_filter, cons
 bool
 GitObject::download (const std::string &url, const std::string &target, const std::string &subfolder, const std::string &branch, double timeout, tl::InputHttpStreamCallback *callback)
 {
-  GitObject obj (target);
-  obj.read (url, std::string (), subfolder, branch, timeout, callback);
-  return false;
+  try {
+
+    GitObject obj (target);
+    obj.read (url, std::string (), subfolder, branch, timeout, callback);
+
+    return true;
+
+  } catch (tl::Exception &ex) {
+
+    tl::error << tl::sprintf (tl::to_string (tr ("Error downloading Git repo from %s (subdir '%s', ref '%s')")), url, subfolder, branch);
+
+    return false;
+
+  }
 }
 
 tl::InputStream *
diff --git a/src/tl/tl/tlGit.h b/src/tl/tl/tlGit.h
index a5d22e342c..a99d304499 100644
--- a/src/tl/tl/tlGit.h
+++ b/src/tl/tl/tlGit.h
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ class TL_PUBLIC GitObject
    *
    *  Sub-directories are created if required.
    *
-   *  This method throws an exception if the directory structure could
+   *  This method returns false if the directory structure could
    *  not be obtained or downloading of one file failed.
    *
    *  "branch" is the remote ref to use. This can be a branch name, a tag name,
diff --git a/src/tl/tl/tlWebDAV.h b/src/tl/tl/tlWebDAV.h
index 5b676a2a7c..7a63f6a367 100644
--- a/src/tl/tl/tlWebDAV.h
+++ b/src/tl/tl/tlWebDAV.h
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ class TL_PUBLIC WebDAVObject
    *
    *  Sub-directories are created if required.
    *
-   *  This method throws an exception if the directory structure could
+   *  This method returns false if the directory structure could
    *  not be obtained or downloading of one file failed.
    */
   static bool download (const std::string &url, const std::string &target, double timeout = 60.0, tl::InputHttpStreamCallback *callback = 0);