diff --git a/cal_tools/cal_tools/tools.py b/cal_tools/cal_tools/tools.py
index d2d480d3116b1abdad828b9778ccb455586d36f3..8e485f2739364e29aa0349e990c75e3f113e1e22 100644
--- a/cal_tools/cal_tools/tools.py
+++ b/cal_tools/cal_tools/tools.py
@@ -273,7 +273,7 @@ def get_dir_creation_date(directory: str, run: int,
                 cdate = fin['METADATA/creationDate'][0].decode()
                 cdate = datetime.datetime.strptime(cdate, "%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ")
             return cdate
-        except (IOError, ValueError):
+        except (IndexError, IOError, ValueError):
             ntries -= 1
         except KeyError:  # The files are here, but it's an older dataset
             return datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(directory.stat().st_ctime)