diff --git a/common/arg.cpp b/common/arg.cpp
index 8c7dcc751..1457a360f 100644
--- a/common/arg.cpp
+++ b/common/arg.cpp
@@ -138,15 +138,12 @@ static void common_params_handle_model_default(
         // short-hand to avoid specifying --hf-file -> default it to --model
         if (hf_file.empty()) {
             if (model.empty()) {
-                try {
-                    auto auto_detected = common_get_hf_file(hf_repo, hf_token);
-                    hf_repo = auto_detected.first;
-                    hf_file = auto_detected.second;
-                    LOG_INF("%s: using hf_file = %s\n", __func__, hf_file.c_str());
-                } catch (std::exception & e) {
-                    fprintf(stderr, "%s: %s\n", __func__, e.what());
-                    exit(1);
+                auto auto_detected = common_get_hf_file(hf_repo, hf_token);
+                if (auto_detected.first.empty() || auto_detected.second.empty()) {
+                    exit(1); // built without CURL, error message already printed
                 }
+                hf_repo = auto_detected.first;
+                hf_file = auto_detected.second;
             } else {
                 hf_file = model;
             }
diff --git a/common/common.cpp b/common/common.cpp
index c0a52d8d1..a6f9252b2 100644
--- a/common/common.cpp
+++ b/common/common.cpp
@@ -1555,7 +1555,8 @@ struct llama_model * common_load_model_from_hf(
 }
 
 std::pair<std::string, std::string> common_get_hf_file(const std::string &, const std::string &) {
-    throw std::runtime_error("error: llama.cpp built without libcurl, downloading from Hugging Face not supported.");
+    LOG_WRN("%s: llama.cpp built without libcurl, downloading from Hugging Face not supported.\n", __func__);
+    return std::make_pair("", "");
 }
 
 #endif // LLAMA_USE_CURL