diff --git a/extension.json b/extension.json
index 9f92ff7366..8c7eb9bb81 100644
--- a/extension.json
+++ b/extension.json
@@ -272,6 +272,10 @@
 				"ext.visualEditor.track",
 				"mediawiki.api"
 			],
+			"messages": [
+				"visualeditor-loaderror-title",
+				"visualeditor-loaderror-message"
+			],
 			"targets": [
 				"desktop",
 				"mobile"
diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/i18n/en.json b/modules/ve-mw/i18n/en.json
index 30ad5ae6be..b0a4271aaa 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/i18n/en.json
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/i18n/en.json
@@ -245,6 +245,8 @@
 	"visualeditor-linkinspector-illegal-title": "Invalid page title",
 	"visualeditor-linknodeinspector-add-label": "Add label",
 	"visualeditor-linknodeinspector-title": "Simple link",
+	"visualeditor-loaderror-message": "Error loading data from server: $1.",
+	"visualeditor-loaderror-title": "The editor could not load",
 	"visualeditor-loadwarning": "Error loading data from server: $1. Would you like to retry?",
 	"visualeditor-loadwarning-token": "Error loading edit token from server: $1. Would you like to retry?",
 	"visualeditor-mainnamespacepagelink": "Project:Main namespace",
diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/i18n/qqq.json b/modules/ve-mw/i18n/qqq.json
index b3a5a51904..fdea5443dc 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/i18n/qqq.json
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/i18n/qqq.json
@@ -254,6 +254,8 @@
 	"visualeditor-linkinspector-illegal-title": "Warning that the entered text is not a valid page title.",
 	"visualeditor-linknodeinspector-add-label": "Label of button that converts an auto-numbered, external, labelless link into a labeled external link",
 	"visualeditor-linknodeinspector-title": "Title of inspector for editing auto-numbered, external, labelless links.\n\nSee also:\n* {{msg-mw|Visualeditor-annotationbutton-linknode-tooltip}}",
+	"visualeditor-loaderror-message": "Text shown in a message box when the editor fails to load properly due to a RESTBase call failing.\n\nParameters:\n* $1 - an error message",
+	"visualeditor-loaderror-title": "Text shown as the title of a message box when the editor fails to load properly for some reason.",
 	"visualeditor-loadwarning": "Text (JavaScript confirm()) shown when the editor fails to load properly.\n\nParameters:\n* $1 - the error message from the server, in English. e.g. \"parsoidserver-http-err\"",
 	"visualeditor-loadwarning-token": "Text (JavaScript confirm()) shown when the editor fails to load properly.\n\nParameters:\n* $1 - the error message from the server.",
 	"visualeditor-mainnamespacepagelink": "Name of a page describing the main namespace (NS0) in this project.\n{{doc-important|Do not translate \"Project\"; it is automatically converted to the wiki's project namespace.}}",
diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/init/ve.init.mw.TargetLoader.js b/modules/ve-mw/init/ve.init.mw.TargetLoader.js
index 54e084c7d8..10149d0aee 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/init/ve.init.mw.TargetLoader.js
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/init/ve.init.mw.TargetLoader.js
@@ -144,7 +144,9 @@
 							// Page does not exist, so let the user start with a blank document.
 							return $.Deferred().resolve( '' ).promise();
 						} else {
-							mw.log.warn( 'One of the load requests failed (unhandled).' );
+							window.alert( mw.msg( 'visualeditor-loaderror-message', 'HTTP ' + response.status ) );
+
+							mw.log.warn( 'RESTBase load failed: ' + response.statusText );
 						}
 					}
 				);