diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/translog/TruncateTranslogAction.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/translog/TruncateTranslogAction.java
index 133055f29178b..e99128fd3e0a2 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/translog/TruncateTranslogAction.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/translog/TruncateTranslogAction.java
@@ -71,6 +71,8 @@ public Tuple<RemoveCorruptedShardDataCommand.CleanStatus, String> getCleanStatus
             commits = DirectoryReader.listCommits(indexDirectory);
         } catch (IndexNotFoundException infe) {
             throw new ElasticsearchException("unable to find a valid shard at [" + indexPath + "]", infe);
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            throw new ElasticsearchException("unable to list commits at [" + indexPath + "]", e);
         }
 
         // Retrieve the generation and UUID from the existing data
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/RemoveCorruptedShardDataCommandTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/RemoveCorruptedShardDataCommandTests.java
index 02e26604dcd25..1c3c3b28773cf 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/RemoveCorruptedShardDataCommandTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/RemoveCorruptedShardDataCommandTests.java
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.containsString;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.either;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.instanceOf;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.is;
@@ -174,7 +175,7 @@ public void testCorruptedIndex() throws Exception {
             fail();
         } catch (ElasticsearchException e) {
             if (corruptSegments) {
-                assertThat(e.getMessage(), is("Index is unrecoverable"));
+                assertThat(e.getMessage(), either(is("Index is unrecoverable")).or(startsWith("unable to list commits")));
             } else {
                 assertThat(e.getMessage(), containsString("aborted by user"));
             }