diff --git a/lib/config/presets.js b/lib/config/presets.js
index 019350a9e0e0df2b5409980e902896debd4561b6..57e1357f193e6aa05e486e30720df1099253ba03 100644
--- a/lib/config/presets.js
+++ b/lib/config/presets.js
@@ -41,6 +41,11 @@ async function resolveConfigPresets(inputConfig, existingPresets = []) {
               error.validationError = `Preset package is missing a renovate-config entry (${preset})`;
             } else if (err.message === 'preset not found') {
               error.validationError = `Preset name not found within published preset config (${preset})`;
+            } else {
+              /* istanbul ignore next */ // eslint-disable-next-line
+              if (err.message === 'registry-failure') {
+                throw err;
+              }
             }
             logger.info('Throwing preset error');
             throw error;
diff --git a/lib/workers/repository/error.js b/lib/workers/repository/error.js
index cae471f597aabb79a8bfbaf9f84ce1f54db46308..67fa22c2aa7820d6718b45dc1b1f4517f97a6674 100644
--- a/lib/workers/repository/error.js
+++ b/lib/workers/repository/error.js
@@ -32,6 +32,10 @@ async function handleError(config, err) {
     logger.info({ error: err }, 'Repository has invalid config');
     await raiseConfigWarningIssue(config, err);
     return err.message;
+  } else if (err.message === 'registry-failure') {
+    logger.info('Registry error - skipping');
+    delete config.branchList; // eslint-disable-line no-param-reassign
+    return err.message;
   }
   // Swallow this error so that other repositories can be processed
   logger.error({ err }, `Repository has unknown error`);
diff --git a/test/workers/repository/error.spec.js b/test/workers/repository/error.spec.js
index 19c32a7e752eea90402918f5ed77e593459b0bd4..e651f3895c5aa532e475ebd06bea95b44ade9020 100644
--- a/test/workers/repository/error.spec.js
+++ b/test/workers/repository/error.spec.js
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ describe('workers/repository/error', () => {
       'no-package-files',
       'loops>5',
       'config-validation',
+      'registry-failure',
       'archived',
       'not-found',
     ];