diff --git a/app/src/processing/app/Base.java b/app/src/processing/app/Base.java
index 448a50265..bd8dc393a 100644
--- a/app/src/processing/app/Base.java
+++ b/app/src/processing/app/Base.java
@@ -1888,8 +1888,10 @@ public class Base {
         }
       }
     } catch (Exception e) {
-      Messages.showError("Problem getting the settings folder",
-                         "Error getting the Processing the settings folder.", e);
+      Messages.showTrace("An rare and unknowable thing happened",
+                         "Could not get the settings folder. Please report:\n" +
+                         "http://github.com/processing/processing/issues/new",
+                         e, true);
     }
     return settingsFolder;
   }
diff --git a/app/src/processing/app/Messages.java b/app/src/processing/app/Messages.java
index bcc53b2ad..d8c78d43f 100644
--- a/app/src/processing/app/Messages.java
+++ b/app/src/processing/app/Messages.java
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ public class Messages {
    * Testing a new warning window that includes the stack trace.
    */
   static public void showTrace(String title, String message,
-                                       Throwable t, boolean fatal) {
+                               Throwable t, boolean fatal) {
     if (title == null) title = fatal ? "Error" : "Warning";
 
     if (Base.isCommandLine()) {