diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.HDFS-1623.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.HDFS-1623.txt
index 8b10741ed4e..36c162482b0 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.HDFS-1623.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.HDFS-1623.txt
@@ -180,3 +180,5 @@ HDFS-2733. Document HA configuration and CLI. (atm)
 HDFS-2794. Active NN may purge edit log files before standby NN has a chance to read them (todd)
 
 HDFS-2901. Improvements for SBN web UI - not show under-replicated/missing blocks. (Brandon Li via jitendra)
+
+HDFS-2905. HA: Standby NN NPE when shared edits dir is deleted. (Bikas Saha via jitendra)
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FileJournalManager.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FileJournalManager.java
index 90bf1a77def..1eca2797b44 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FileJournalManager.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FileJournalManager.java
@@ -135,8 +135,7 @@ class FileJournalManager implements JournalManager {
    */
   List<RemoteEditLog> getRemoteEditLogs(long firstTxId) throws IOException {
     File currentDir = sd.getCurrentDir();
-    List<EditLogFile> allLogFiles = matchEditLogs(
-        FileUtil.listFiles(currentDir));
+    List<EditLogFile> allLogFiles = matchEditLogs(currentDir);
     List<RemoteEditLog> ret = Lists.newArrayListWithCapacity(
         allLogFiles.size());
 
@@ -155,6 +154,20 @@ class FileJournalManager implements JournalManager {
     return ret;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * returns matching edit logs via the log directory. Simple helper function
+   * that lists the files in the logDir and calls matchEditLogs(File[])
+   * 
+   * @param logDir
+   *          directory to match edit logs in
+   * @return matched edit logs
+   * @throws IOException
+   *           IOException thrown for invalid logDir
+   */
+  static List<EditLogFile> matchEditLogs(File logDir) throws IOException {
+    return matchEditLogs(FileUtil.listFiles(logDir));
+  }
+  
   static List<EditLogFile> matchEditLogs(File[] filesInStorage) {
     List<EditLogFile> ret = Lists.newArrayList();
     for (File f : filesInStorage) {
@@ -278,7 +291,7 @@ class FileJournalManager implements JournalManager {
   synchronized public void recoverUnfinalizedSegments() throws IOException {
     File currentDir = sd.getCurrentDir();
     LOG.info("Recovering unfinalized segments in " + currentDir);
-    List<EditLogFile> allLogFiles = matchEditLogs(currentDir.listFiles());
+    List<EditLogFile> allLogFiles = matchEditLogs(currentDir);
 
     for (EditLogFile elf : allLogFiles) {
       if (elf.getFile().equals(currentInProgress)) {
@@ -318,7 +331,7 @@ class FileJournalManager implements JournalManager {
 
   private List<EditLogFile> getLogFiles(long fromTxId) throws IOException {
     File currentDir = sd.getCurrentDir();
-    List<EditLogFile> allLogFiles = matchEditLogs(currentDir.listFiles());
+    List<EditLogFile> allLogFiles = matchEditLogs(currentDir);
     List<EditLogFile> logFiles = Lists.newArrayList();
     
     for (EditLogFile elf : allLogFiles) {
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSImageTestUtil.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSImageTestUtil.java
index f0b8a6d2b30..665e088cb80 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSImageTestUtil.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSImageTestUtil.java
@@ -440,7 +440,7 @@ public abstract class FSImageTestUtil {
   throws IOException {
     File currentDir = sd.getCurrentDir();
     List<EditLogFile> foundEditLogs 
-      = Lists.newArrayList(FileJournalManager.matchEditLogs(currentDir.listFiles()));
+      = Lists.newArrayList(FileJournalManager.matchEditLogs(currentDir));
     return Collections.max(foundEditLogs, EditLogFile.COMPARE_BY_START_TXID);
   }
 
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestFileJournalManager.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestFileJournalManager.java
index b862727b0e6..def29365776 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestFileJournalManager.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/TestFileJournalManager.java
@@ -315,6 +315,15 @@ public class TestFileJournalManager {
         "", getLogsAsString(fjm, 9999));
   }
 
+  /**
+   * tests that passing an invalid dir to matchEditLogs throws IOException 
+   */
+  @Test(expected = IOException.class)
+  public void testMatchEditLogInvalidDirThrowsIOException() throws IOException {
+    File badDir = new File("does not exist");
+    FileJournalManager.matchEditLogs(badDir);
+  }
+  
   /**
    * Make sure that we starting reading the correct op when we request a stream
    * with a txid in the middle of an edit log file.