diff --git a/src/java/com/cloudera/sqoop/util/AppendUtils.java b/src/java/com/cloudera/sqoop/util/AppendUtils.java
index 21784513..8f26cdf7 100644
--- a/src/java/com/cloudera/sqoop/util/AppendUtils.java
+++ b/src/java/com/cloudera/sqoop/util/AppendUtils.java
@@ -77,7 +77,16 @@ public void append() throws IOException {
 
     int nextPartition = 0;
 
-    // Create directory in case
+    if (!fs.exists(tempDir)) {
+      // This occurs if there was no source (tmp) dir. This might happen
+      // if the import was an HBase-target import, but the user specified
+      // --append anyway. This is a warning, not an error.
+      LOG.warn("Cannot append files to target dir; no such directory: "
+          + tempDir);
+      return;
+    }
+
+    // Create target directory.
     if (!fs.exists(userDestDir)) {
       LOG.info("Creating missing output directory - " + userDestDir.getName());
       fs.mkdirs(userDestDir);
@@ -92,9 +101,8 @@ public void append() throws IOException {
     moveFiles(fs, tempDir, userDestDir, nextPartition);
 
     // delete temporary path
-    LOG.debug("Deleting temporary folder "
-            + context.getDestination().getName());
-    fs.delete(context.getDestination(), true);
+    LOG.debug("Deleting temporary folder " + tempDir.getName());
+    fs.delete(tempDir, true);
   }
 
   /**
@@ -141,6 +149,13 @@ private void moveFiles(FileSystem fs, Path sourceDir, Path targetDir,
     numpart.setGroupingUsed(false);
     Pattern patt = Pattern.compile("part.*-([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]).*");
     FileStatus[] tempFiles = fs.listStatus(sourceDir);
+
+    if (null == tempFiles) {
+      // If we've already checked that the dir exists, and now it can't be
+      // listed, this is a genuine error (permissions, fs integrity, or other).
+      throw new IOException("Could not list files from " + sourceDir);
+    }
+
     // Move and rename files & directories from temporary to target-dir thus
     // appending file's next partition
     for (FileStatus fileStat : tempFiles) {
diff --git a/src/test/com/cloudera/sqoop/TestAppendUtils.java b/src/test/com/cloudera/sqoop/TestAppendUtils.java
index a5f039a0..83cd7785 100644
--- a/src/test/com/cloudera/sqoop/TestAppendUtils.java
+++ b/src/test/com/cloudera/sqoop/TestAppendUtils.java
@@ -34,10 +34,13 @@
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 
+import com.cloudera.sqoop.manager.ImportJobContext;
+
 import com.cloudera.sqoop.testutil.CommonArgs;
 import com.cloudera.sqoop.testutil.HsqldbTestServer;
 import com.cloudera.sqoop.testutil.ImportJobTestCase;
 import com.cloudera.sqoop.tool.ImportTool;
+import com.cloudera.sqoop.util.AppendUtils;
 
 /**
  * Test that --append works.
@@ -261,5 +264,22 @@ public void testAppendToTargetDir() throws IOException {
     runAppendTest(args, output);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * If the append source does not exist, don't crash.
+   */
+  public void testAppendSrcDoesNotExist() throws IOException {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    conf.set("fs.default.name", "file:///");
+    SqoopOptions options = new SqoopOptions(conf);
+    options.setTableName("meep");
+    Path missingPath = new Path("doesNotExistForAnyReason");
+    FileSystem local = FileSystem.getLocal(conf);
+    assertFalse(local.exists(missingPath));
+    ImportJobContext importContext = new ImportJobContext("meep", null,
+        options, missingPath);
+    AppendUtils utils = new AppendUtils(importContext);
+    utils.append();
+  }
+
 }