diff --git a/core/rawdb/accessors_metadata.go b/core/rawdb/accessors_metadata.go
index 859566f722..2ff29d1add 100644
--- a/core/rawdb/accessors_metadata.go
+++ b/core/rawdb/accessors_metadata.go
@@ -111,10 +111,10 @@ const crashesToKeep = 10
 func PushUncleanShutdownMarker(db ethdb.KeyValueStore) ([]uint64, uint64, error) {
 	var uncleanShutdowns crashList
 	// Read old data
-	if data, err := db.Get(uncleanShutdownKey); err == nil {
-		if err := rlp.DecodeBytes(data, &uncleanShutdowns); err != nil {
-			return nil, 0, err
-		}
+	if data, err := db.Get(uncleanShutdownKey); err != nil {
+		log.Warn("Error reading unclean shutdown markers", "error", err)
+	} else if err := rlp.DecodeBytes(data, &uncleanShutdowns); err != nil {
+		return nil, 0, err
 	}
 	var discarded = uncleanShutdowns.Discarded
 	var previous = make([]uint64, len(uncleanShutdowns.Recent))