diff --git a/onadata/libs/utils/logger_tools.py b/onadata/libs/utils/logger_tools.py
index 194bc8f167..ebc71e382d 100644
--- a/onadata/libs/utils/logger_tools.py
+++ b/onadata/libs/utils/logger_tools.py
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 from django.utils import timezone
 from django.utils.encoding import DjangoUnicodeDecodeError
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext as _
+from http.client import BadStatusLine
 from modilabs.utils.subprocess_timeout import ProcessTimedOut
 from multidb.pinning import use_master
 from pyxform.errors import PyXFormError
@@ -501,6 +502,12 @@ def publish_form(callback):
             'text': _((u'An error occurred while publishing the form. '
                        'Please try again.')),
         }
+    except BadStatusLine:
+        # Catch urllib error
+        return {
+            'type': 'alert-error',
+            'text': _(u'An error occured while trying to retrieve the form.')
+        }
     except (AttributeError, Exception, ValidationError) as e:
         report_exception("Form publishing exception: {}".format(e), text(e),
                          sys.exc_info())