diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 98e2a87d81a..b9464c9aa14 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -205,6 +205,8 @@ Bug Fixes
 
 * SOLR-14851: Http2SolrClient doesn't handle keystore type correctly (Andras Salamon via janhoy)
 
+* SOLR-15009: Correctly propogate exceptions from DirectoryFactory.exists (Mike Drob)
+
 Other Changes
 ---------------------
 
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CachingDirectoryFactory.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CachingDirectoryFactory.java
index 0b4e193b8d7..c76389bce0c 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CachingDirectoryFactory.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CachingDirectoryFactory.java
@@ -16,9 +16,11 @@
  */
 package org.apache.solr.core;
 
-import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.lang.invoke.MethodHandles;
+import java.nio.file.DirectoryStream;
+import java.nio.file.Files;
+import java.nio.file.Path;
 import java.nio.file.Paths;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collection;
@@ -323,9 +325,14 @@ public abstract class CachingDirectoryFactory extends DirectoryFactory {
 
   @Override
   public boolean exists(String path) throws IOException {
-    // back compat behavior
-    File dirFile = new File(path);
-    return dirFile.canRead() && dirFile.list().length > 0;
+    // we go by the persistent storage ...
+    Path dirPath = Path.of(path);
+    if (Files.isReadable(dirPath)) {
+      try (DirectoryStream<Path> directory = Files.newDirectoryStream(dirPath)) {
+        return directory.iterator().hasNext();
+      }
+    }
+    return false;
   }
 
   /*
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/StandardDirectoryFactory.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/StandardDirectoryFactory.java
index 3f901467b74..71bb9a91647 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/StandardDirectoryFactory.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/StandardDirectoryFactory.java
@@ -84,24 +84,11 @@ public class StandardDirectoryFactory extends CachingDirectoryFactory {
     
     return super.normalize(cpath);
   }
-  
-  @Override
-  public boolean exists(String path) throws IOException {
-    // we go by the persistent storage ... 
-    File dirFile = new File(path);
-    return dirFile.canRead() && dirFile.list().length > 0;
-  }
-  
+
   public boolean isPersistent() {
     return true;
   }
   
-  @Override
-  public boolean isAbsolute(String path) {
-    // back compat
-    return new File(path).isAbsolute();
-  }
-  
   @Override
   protected void removeDirectory(CacheValue cacheValue) throws IOException {
     File dirFile = new File(cacheValue.path);