diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/blobstore/BlobStoreRepository.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/blobstore/BlobStoreRepository.java
index 2de41fc0ef371..91c32cfa4493e 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/blobstore/BlobStoreRepository.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/repositories/blobstore/BlobStoreRepository.java
@@ -650,6 +650,9 @@ public void endVerification(String seed) {
     public RepositoryData getRepositoryData() {
         try {
             final long indexGen = latestIndexBlobId();
+            if (indexGen == RepositoryData.EMPTY_REPO_GEN) {
+                return RepositoryData.EMPTY;
+            }
             final String snapshotsIndexBlobName = INDEX_FILE_PREFIX + Long.toString(indexGen);
 
             RepositoryData repositoryData;
@@ -688,9 +691,6 @@ public RepositoryData getRepositoryData() {
                 }
             }
             return repositoryData;
-        } catch (NoSuchFileException ex) {
-            // repository doesn't have an index blob, its a new blank repo
-            return RepositoryData.EMPTY;
         } catch (IOException ioe) {
             throw new RepositoryException(metadata.name(), "could not read repository data from index blob", ioe);
         }