diff --git a/base/loading.jl b/base/loading.jl
index c6405e8c5b37e..a8e3549da5260 100644
--- a/base/loading.jl
+++ b/base/loading.jl
@@ -3005,7 +3005,13 @@ end
     return stale_cachefile(PkgId(""), UInt128(0), modpath, cachefile; ignore_loaded)
 end
 @constprop :none function stale_cachefile(modkey::PkgId, build_id::UInt128, modpath::String, cachefile::String; ignore_loaded::Bool = false)
-    io = open(cachefile, "r")
+    io = try
+        open(cachefile, "r")
+    catch ex
+        ex isa IOError || ex isa SystemError || rethrow()
+        @debug "Rejecting cache file $cachefile for $modkey because it could not be opened" isfile(cachefile)
+        return true
+    end
     try
         checksum = isvalid_cache_header(io)
         if iszero(checksum)
diff --git a/test/precompile.jl b/test/precompile.jl
index d317731b51370..0b9cc9eab3417 100644
--- a/test/precompile.jl
+++ b/test/precompile.jl
@@ -522,6 +522,10 @@ precompile_test_harness(false) do dir
     @eval using Baz
     @test Base.invokelatest(Baz.baz) == 1
 
+    # should not throw if the cachefile does not exist
+    @test !isfile("DoesNotExist.ji")
+    @test Base.stale_cachefile("", "DoesNotExist.ji") === true
+
     # Issue #12720
     FooBar1_file = joinpath(dir, "FooBar1.jl")
     write(FooBar1_file,