diff --git a/extension.json b/extension.json
index 5a5ec0534b..efcc68f1cf 100644
--- a/extension.json
+++ b/extension.json
@@ -395,8 +395,7 @@
 				"visualeditor-loadwarning-token",
 				"visualeditor-savedialog-identify-anon",
 				"visualeditor-savedialog-identify-trylogin",
-				"visualeditor-savedialog-identify-user",
-				"visualeditor-timeout"
+				"visualeditor-savedialog-identify-user"
 			]
 		},
 		"ext.visualEditor.mobileArticleTarget": {
diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/i18n/en.json b/modules/ve-mw/i18n/en.json
index 570d4cceb1..63f2a8d5ff 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/i18n/en.json
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/i18n/en.json
@@ -246,10 +246,10 @@
 	"visualeditor-linknodeinspector-add-label": "Add label",
 	"visualeditor-linknodeinspector-title": "Simple link",
 	"visualeditor-loaderror-message": "Error loading data from server: $1.",
-	"visualeditor-loaderror-message-noconnect": "Could not connect to the server.",
+	"visualeditor-loaderror-message-noconnect": "Could not connect to the server",
 	"visualeditor-loaderror-title": "The editor could not load",
 	"visualeditor-loadwarning": "Error loading data from server: $1. Would you like to retry?",
-	"visualeditor-loadwarning-noconnect": "Could not connect",
+	"visualeditor-loadwarning-noconnect": "Could not connect to the server",
 	"visualeditor-loadwarning-token": "Error loading edit token from server: $1. Would you like to retry?",
 	"visualeditor-magiclinknodeinspector-convert-link": "Convert to simple link",
 	"visualeditor-magiclinknodeinspector-title-isbn": "ISBN link",
@@ -350,7 +350,6 @@
 	"visualeditor-settings-tool": "Page settings",
 	"visualeditor-shortcuts-insert": "Insert",
 	"visualeditor-special-characters-group-other": "Often used",
-	"visualeditor-timeout":"It looks like this editor is currently unavailable. Would you like to edit in source mode instead?",
 	"visualeditor-toload": "The editor will now load. If you still see this message after a few seconds, please [$1 reload the page].",
 	"visualeditor-toolbar-savedialog": "Save page",
 	"visualeditor-toolbar-savedialog-short": "Save",
diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/i18n/qqq.json b/modules/ve-mw/i18n/qqq.json
index 3138265b4e..b709e005e7 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/i18n/qqq.json
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/i18n/qqq.json
@@ -363,7 +363,6 @@
 	"visualeditor-settings-tool": "Text of tool in the toolbar the lets users set specific page settings.\n{{Identical|Page settings}}",
 	"visualeditor-shortcuts-insert": "Heading for insertion shortcuts\n{{Identical|Insert}}",
 	"visualeditor-special-characters-group-other": "Label of the special character group shown if the wiki has visualeditor-quick-access-characters.json set up.",
-	"visualeditor-timeout": "Text (JavaScript confirm()) shown when the editor fails to load properly due to a 504 Gateway Timeout error.",
 	"visualeditor-toload": "Text shown to the user in place of the wikitext editor on action=edit/submit when VisualEditor is expected to load.\n\nParameters\n* $1 is the URL which points to a page with a fallback to the wikitext editor if necessary.",
 	"visualeditor-toolbar-savedialog": "Label text for button to open save dialog.\n\nUsed in:\n* {{msg-mw|Guidedtour-tour-gettingstartedtasktoolbarve-click-save-description}}.\n{{Identical|Save page}}",
 	"visualeditor-toolbar-savedialog-short": "Short label text for button to open save dialog on width-restricted devices\n{{Identical|Save}}",
diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.DesktopArticleTarget.js b/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.DesktopArticleTarget.js
index 4d4e4d2fa2..9e50509632 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.DesktopArticleTarget.js
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/init/targets/ve.init.mw.DesktopArticleTarget.js
@@ -661,6 +661,7 @@ ve.init.mw.DesktopArticleTarget.prototype.cancel = function ( trackMechanism ) {
  * @inheritdoc
  */
 ve.init.mw.DesktopArticleTarget.prototype.loadFail = function ( errorText, error ) {
+	var errorInfo, confirmPromptMessage;
 	// Parent method
 	ve.init.mw.DesktopArticleTarget.super.prototype.loadFail.apply( this, arguments );
 
@@ -671,46 +672,33 @@ ve.init.mw.DesktopArticleTarget.prototype.loadFail = function ( errorText, error
 		Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call( error, 'error' ) &&
 		Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call( error.error, 'info' )
 	) {
-		error = error.error.info;
+		errorInfo = error.error.info;
 	}
 
-	if (
-		errorText === 'http' &&
-		( error.statusText !== 'abort' || error.xhr.status !== 504 ) &&
-		(
-			(
-				error.xhr.status &&
-				confirm( ve.msg( 'visualeditor-loadwarning', 'HTTP ' + error.xhr.status ) )
-			) ||
-			(
-				!error.xhr.status &&
-				confirm( ve.msg(
+	if ( !error || error.statusText !== 'abort' ) {
+		if ( errorText === 'http' ) {
+			if ( error && error.xhr.status ) {
+				confirmPromptMessage = ve.msg(
+					'visualeditor-loadwarning',
+					'HTTP ' + error.xhr.status
+				);
+			} else {
+				confirmPromptMessage = ve.msg(
 					'visualeditor-loadwarning',
 					ve.msg( 'visualeditor-loadwarning-noconnect' )
-				) )
-			)
-		)
-	) {
-		this.load();
-	} else if (
-		errorText === 'http' && error.xhr.status === 504 &&
-		confirm( ve.msg( 'visualeditor-timeout' ) )
-	) {
-		if ( 'veaction' in this.currentUri.query ) {
-			delete this.currentUri.query.veaction;
+				);
+			}
+		} else if ( errorInfo ) {
+			confirmPromptMessage = ve.msg( 'visualeditor-loadwarning', errorText + ': ' + errorInfo );
+		} else {
+			// At least give the devs something to work from
+			confirmPromptMessage = JSON.stringify( error );
 		}
-		this.currentUri.query.action = 'edit';
-		location.href = this.currentUri.toString();
-	} else if (
-		errorText !== 'http' &&
-		typeof error === 'string' &&
-		confirm( ve.msg( 'visualeditor-loadwarning', errorText + ': ' + error ) )
-	) {
+	}
+
+	if ( confirmPromptMessage && confirm( confirmPromptMessage ) ) {
 		this.load();
 	} else {
-		// Something weird happened? Deactivate
-		// Not passing trackMechanism because we don't know what happened
-		// and this is not a user action
 		this.deactivate( true );
 	}
 };