diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/recovery/RecoveryTarget.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/recovery/RecoveryTarget.java
index 177cfe7527f..b16ea20526f 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/recovery/RecoveryTarget.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/recovery/RecoveryTarget.java
@@ -385,7 +385,11 @@ public class RecoveryTarget extends AbstractComponent {
             InternalIndexShard shard = (InternalIndexShard) indicesService.indexServiceSafe(request.shardId().index().name()).shardSafe(request.shardId().id());
             for (String existingFile : shard.store().directory().listAll()) {
                 if (!request.snapshotFiles().contains(existingFile)) {
-                    shard.store().directory().deleteFile(existingFile);
+                    try {
+                        shard.store().directory().deleteFile(existingFile);
+                    } catch (IOException e) {
+                        // ignore, we don't really care, will get deleted later on
+                    }
                 }
             }
             channel.sendResponse(VoidStreamable.INSTANCE);
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/support/AbstractStore.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/support/AbstractStore.java
index 3bbf4b72b73..0849dc6b9df 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/support/AbstractStore.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/store/support/AbstractStore.java
@@ -179,6 +179,10 @@ public abstract class AbstractStore extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implemen
             synchronized (mutex) {
                 MapBuilder<String, StoreFileMetaData> builder = MapBuilder.newMapBuilder();
                 for (String file : delegate.listAll()) {
+                    if (file.endsWith(".md5")) {
+                        // md5 are files we create, ignore them
+                        continue;
+                    }
                     try {
                         String md5 = preComputedMd5(file);
 
@@ -233,6 +237,10 @@ public abstract class AbstractStore extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implemen
         }
 
         @Override public void deleteFile(String name) throws IOException {
+            if (name.endsWith(".md5")) {
+                // ignore, this should not really happen...
+                return;
+            }
             delegate.deleteFile(name);
             try {
                 delegate.deleteFile(name + ".md5");