diff --git a/rest/admin_api.go b/rest/admin_api.go
index a63d131163..3f6ce61b34 100644
--- a/rest/admin_api.go
+++ b/rest/admin_api.go
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ func (h *handler) handleCreateDB() error {
 				return httpErr
 			}
 			if errors.Is(err, base.ErrAuthError) {
-				return base.HTTPErrorf(http.StatusForbidden, "Provided credentials do not have access to specified bucket/scope/collection")
+				return base.HTTPErrorf(http.StatusForbidden, "The specified bucket/scope/collection does not exist, or the provided credentials do not have access to it")
 			}
 			if errors.Is(err, base.ErrAlreadyExists) {
 				return base.HTTPErrorf(http.StatusConflict, "couldn't load database: %s", err)
diff --git a/rest/adminapitest/admin_api_test.go b/rest/adminapitest/admin_api_test.go
index 32169e418f..95e7480c3b 100644
--- a/rest/adminapitest/admin_api_test.go
+++ b/rest/adminapitest/admin_api_test.go
@@ -3612,10 +3612,10 @@ func TestCreateDbOnNonExistentBucket(t *testing.T) {
 
 	resp := rest.BootstrapAdminRequest(t, http.MethodPut, "/db/", `{"bucket": "nonexistentbucket"}`)
 	resp.RequireStatus(http.StatusForbidden)
-	assert.Contains(t, resp.Body, "Provided credentials do not have access to specified bucket/scope/collection")
+	assert.Contains(t, resp.Body, "The specified bucket/scope/collection does not exist, or the provided credentials do not have access to it")
 	resp = rest.BootstrapAdminRequest(t, http.MethodPut, "/nonexistentbucket/", `{}`)
 	resp.RequireStatus(http.StatusForbidden)
-	assert.Contains(t, resp.Body, "Provided credentials do not have access to specified bucket/scope/collection")
+	assert.Contains(t, resp.Body, "The specified bucket/scope/collection does not exist, or the provided credentials do not have access to it")
 }
 
 func TestPutDbConfigChangeName(t *testing.T) {