diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/support/single/shard/TransportShardSingleOperationAction.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/support/single/shard/TransportShardSingleOperationAction.java
index 7fe7e15e5d0..19511703e84 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/support/single/shard/TransportShardSingleOperationAction.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/support/single/shard/TransportShardSingleOperationAction.java
@@ -41,6 +41,8 @@ import org.elasticsearch.transport.*;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 
+import static org.elasticsearch.action.support.TransportActions.isShardNotAvailableException;
+
 /**
  * A base class for single shard read operations.
  */
@@ -139,7 +141,7 @@ public abstract class TransportShardSingleOperationAction<Request extends Single
             final ShardRouting shardRouting = shardIt.nextOrNull();
             if (shardRouting == null) {
                 Throwable failure = lastFailure;
-                if (failure == null) {
+                if (failure == null || isShardNotAvailableException(failure)) {
                     failure = new NoShardAvailableActionException(shardIt.shardId());
                 } else {
                     if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/river/RiversService.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/river/RiversService.java
index c1d5823140d..b992f7023fd 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/river/RiversService.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/river/RiversService.java
@@ -25,13 +25,11 @@ import com.google.common.collect.Maps;
 import org.elasticsearch.ElasticSearchException;
 import org.elasticsearch.ExceptionsHelper;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionListener;
-import org.elasticsearch.action.NoShardAvailableActionException;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.WriteConsistencyLevel;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.admin.indices.mapping.delete.DeleteMappingResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.get.GetResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.Client;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterService;
-import org.elasticsearch.cluster.block.ClusterBlockException;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNode;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.collect.MapBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.component.AbstractLifecycleComponent;
@@ -55,6 +53,8 @@ import org.elasticsearch.threadpool.ThreadPool;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;
 
+import static org.elasticsearch.action.support.TransportActions.isShardNotAvailableException;
+
 /**
  *
  */
@@ -278,7 +278,7 @@ public class RiversService extends AbstractLifecycleComponent<RiversService> {
                         // this might happen if the state of the river index has not been propagated yet to this node, which
                         // should happen pretty fast since we managed to get the _meta in the RiversRouter
                         Throwable failure = ExceptionsHelper.unwrapCause(e);
-                        if ((failure instanceof NoShardAvailableActionException) || (failure instanceof ClusterBlockException) || (failure instanceof IndexMissingException)) {
+                        if (isShardNotAvailableException(failure)) {
                             logger.debug("failed to get _meta from [{}]/[{}], retrying...", e, routing.riverName().type(), routing.riverName().name());
                             final ActionListener<GetResponse> listener = this;
                             threadPool.schedule(TimeValue.timeValueSeconds(5), ThreadPool.Names.SAME, new Runnable() {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/river/routing/RiversRouter.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/river/routing/RiversRouter.java
index 9c7be825826..776ddba205c 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/river/routing/RiversRouter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/river/routing/RiversRouter.java
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.component.AbstractLifecycleComponent;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.inject.Inject;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.support.XContentMapValues;
+import org.elasticsearch.index.shard.IllegalIndexShardStateException;
 import org.elasticsearch.indices.IndexMissingException;
 import org.elasticsearch.river.RiverIndexName;
 import org.elasticsearch.river.RiverName;
@@ -122,6 +123,8 @@ public class RiversRouter extends AbstractLifecycleComponent<RiversRouter> imple
                             // ignore, we will get it next time
                         } catch (IndexMissingException e) {
                             // ignore, we will get it next time
+                        } catch (IllegalIndexShardStateException e) {
+                            // ignore, we will get it next time
                         } catch (Exception e) {
                             logger.warn("failed to get/parse _meta for [{}]", e, mappingType);
                         }