diff --git a/libs/ardour/session_state.cc b/libs/ardour/session_state.cc
index 893f94831b..bcc37dde51 100644
--- a/libs/ardour/session_state.cc
+++ b/libs/ardour/session_state.cc
@@ -773,7 +773,11 @@ Session::save_state (string snapshot_name, bool pending, bool switch_to_snapshot
 	/* tell sources we're saving first, in case they write out to a new file
 	 * which should be saved with the state rather than the old one */
 	for (SourceMap::const_iterator i = sources.begin(); i != sources.end(); ++i) {
-		i->second->session_saved();
+		try {
+			i->second->session_saved();
+		} catch (Evoral::SMF::FileError& e) {
+			error << string_compose ("Could not write to MIDI file %1; MIDI data not saved.", e.file_name ()) << endmsg;
+		}
         }
 
 	tree.set_root (&get_state());
diff --git a/libs/evoral/evoral/SMF.hpp b/libs/evoral/evoral/SMF.hpp
index 67ea42fe7d..8bd05444c4 100644
--- a/libs/evoral/evoral/SMF.hpp
+++ b/libs/evoral/evoral/SMF.hpp
@@ -38,7 +38,13 @@ namespace Evoral {
 class SMF {
 public:
 	class FileError : public std::exception {
+	public:
+		FileError (std::string const & n) : _file_name (n) {}
+		~FileError () throw () {}
 		const char* what() const throw() { return "Unknown SMF error"; }
+		std::string file_name () const { return _file_name; }
+	private:
+		std::string _file_name;
 	};
 
 	SMF() : _smf(0), _smf_track(0), _empty(true) {};
diff --git a/libs/evoral/src/SMF.cpp b/libs/evoral/src/SMF.cpp
index ffc21a947f..b84507818c 100644
--- a/libs/evoral/src/SMF.cpp
+++ b/libs/evoral/src/SMF.cpp
@@ -354,11 +354,11 @@ SMF::end_write() THROW_FILE_ERROR
 	PBD::StdioFileDescriptor d (_file_path, "w+");
 	FILE* f = d.allocate ();
 	if (f == 0) {
-		throw FileError ();
+		throw FileError (_file_path);
 	}
 
 	if (smf_save(_smf, f) != 0) {
-		throw FileError();
+		throw FileError (_file_path);
 	}
 }