diff --git a/arangosh/Dump/DumpFeature.cpp b/arangosh/Dump/DumpFeature.cpp
index a8590d0c75..0b73f3ccc4 100644
--- a/arangosh/Dump/DumpFeature.cpp
+++ b/arangosh/Dump/DumpFeature.cpp
@@ -237,7 +237,8 @@ arangodb::Result dumpJsonObjects(arangodb::DumpFeature::JobData& jobData,
   file.write(result->c_str(), result->length());
 
   if (file.status().fail()) {
-    return {TRI_ERROR_CANNOT_WRITE_FILE};
+    return {TRI_ERROR_CANNOT_WRITE_FILE, std::string("cannot write file '") + file.path() +
+                                             "': " + file.status().errorMessage()};
   }
 
   jobData.stats.totalWritten += static_cast<uint64_t>(result->length());
@@ -476,15 +477,16 @@ arangodb::Result processJob(arangodb::httpclient::SimpleHttpClient& client,
       dumpData = jobData.maskings->shouldDumpData(jobData.name);
     }
 
-    if (dumpData) {
-      // save the actual data
-      auto file = jobData.directory.writableFile(jobData.name + "_" +
-                                                     hexString + ".data.json",
+    // always create the file so that arangorestore does not complain
+    auto file = jobData.directory.writableFile(jobData.name + "_" + hexString +
+                                                   ".data.json",
                                                  true);
       if (!::fileOk(file.get())) {
         return ::fileError(file.get(), true);
       }
 
+    if (dumpData) {
+      // save the actual data
       if (jobData.options.clusterMode) {
         result = ::handleCollectionCluster(client, jobData, *file);
       } else {