diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/OpenJobAction.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/OpenJobAction.java
index bfef115bb1e..00c7e0d9562 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/OpenJobAction.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/OpenJobAction.java
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.action;
 
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.elasticsearch.ElasticsearchException;
 import org.elasticsearch.ElasticsearchStatusException;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.Action;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionListener;
@@ -336,6 +337,12 @@ public class OpenJobAction extends Action<OpenJobAction.Request, OpenJobAction.R
                 public void onFailure(Exception e) {
                     listener.onFailure(e);
                 }
+
+                @Override
+                public void onTimeout(TimeValue timeout) {
+                    listener.onFailure(new ElasticsearchException("Opening job ["
+                            + request.getJobId() + "] timed out after [" + timeout + "]"));
+                }
             });
         }
 
diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/StartDatafeedAction.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/StartDatafeedAction.java
index 480e8032c79..0e8c5987973 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/StartDatafeedAction.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/StartDatafeedAction.java
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.action;
 
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
+import org.elasticsearch.ElasticsearchException;
 import org.elasticsearch.ElasticsearchParseException;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.Action;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionListener;
@@ -392,6 +393,12 @@ public class StartDatafeedAction
                 public void onFailure(Exception e) {
                     listener.onFailure(e);
                 }
+
+                @Override
+                public void onTimeout(TimeValue timeout) {
+                    listener.onFailure(new ElasticsearchException("Starting datafeed ["
+                            + request.getDatafeedId() + "] timed out after [" + timeout + "]"));
+                }
             });
         }
     }
@@ -426,6 +433,14 @@ public class StartDatafeedAction
                 MlMetadata mlMetadata = clusterState.metaData().custom(MlMetadata.TYPE);
                 PersistentTasksCustomMetaData tasks = clusterState.getMetaData().custom(PersistentTasksCustomMetaData.TYPE);
                 StartDatafeedAction.validate(request.getDatafeedId(), mlMetadata, tasks);
+                Assignment assignment = selectNode(logger, request.getDatafeedId(), clusterState, resolver);
+                if (assignment.getExecutorNode() == null) {
+                    DatafeedConfig datafeed = mlMetadata.getDatafeed(request.getDatafeedId());
+                    String msg = "No node found to start datafeed [" + request.getDatafeedId()
+                            + "], allocation explanation [" + assignment.getExplanation() + "]";
+                    logger.warn("[{}] {}", datafeed.getJobId(), msg);
+                    throw new ElasticsearchException(msg);
+                }
             } else {
                 throw LicenseUtils.newComplianceException(XPackPlugin.MACHINE_LEARNING);
             }
@@ -463,7 +478,7 @@ public class StartDatafeedAction
                     if (assignment.getExecutorNode() == null) {
                         String msg = "No node found to start datafeed [" + datafeedId +"]. Reasons [" +
                                 assignment.getExplanation() + "]";
-                        logger.warn(msg);
+                        logger.warn("[{}] {}", datafeed.getJobId(), msg);
                         auditor.warning(jobId, msg);
                     } else {
                         DiscoveryNode node = state.nodes().get(assignment.getExecutorNode());
diff --git a/plugin/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/ml/start_stop_datafeed.yaml b/plugin/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/ml/start_stop_datafeed.yaml
index c29231f4b4b..cbce65aa64c 100644
--- a/plugin/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/ml/start_stop_datafeed.yaml
+++ b/plugin/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/ml/start_stop_datafeed.yaml
@@ -191,3 +191,22 @@ setup:
         datafeed_id: "datafeed-1"
         start: "2017-02-01T01:00:00Z"
         end: "2017-02-01T01:00:00Z"
+
+---
+"Test start given datafeed index does not exist":
+  - do:
+      xpack.ml.update_datafeed:
+        datafeed_id: datafeed-1
+        body:  >
+          {
+            "indexes":["utopia"]
+          }
+
+  - do:
+      xpack.ml.open_job:
+        job_id: "datafeed-job"
+
+  - do:
+      catch: /No node found to start datafeed \[datafeed-1\].*\[utopia\] does not exist.*/
+      xpack.ml.start_datafeed:
+        datafeed_id: "datafeed-1"