diff --git a/utils/dataloaders.py b/utils/dataloaders.py
index 826bb998d7c2..51d1612d3d5d 100755
--- a/utils/dataloaders.py
+++ b/utils/dataloaders.py
@@ -1027,10 +1027,14 @@ def _hub_ops(f, max_dim=1920):
             cv2.imwrite(str(f_new), im)
 
     zipped, data_dir, yaml_path = _unzip(Path(path))
-    with open(check_yaml(yaml_path), errors='ignore') as f:
-        data = yaml.safe_load(f)  # data dict
-        if zipped:
-            data['path'] = data_dir  # TODO: should this be dir.resolve()?
+    try:
+        with open(check_yaml(yaml_path), errors='ignore') as f:
+            data = yaml.safe_load(f)  # data dict
+            if zipped:
+                data['path'] = data_dir  # TODO: should this be dir.resolve()?`
+    except Exception:
+        raise Exception("error/HUB/dataset_stats/yaml_load")
+
     check_dataset(data, autodownload)  # download dataset if missing
     hub_dir = Path(data['path'] + ('-hub' if hub else ''))
     stats = {'nc': data['nc'], 'names': data['names']}  # statistics dictionary