diff --git a/haystack/document_stores/elasticsearch.py b/haystack/document_stores/elasticsearch.py
index 7e964ae65..967a882b8 100644
--- a/haystack/document_stores/elasticsearch.py
+++ b/haystack/document_stores/elasticsearch.py
@@ -1221,16 +1221,17 @@ class BaseElasticsearchDocumentStore(KeywordDocumentStore):
         try:
             result = self.client.search(index=index, body=body, request_timeout=300, headers=headers)["hits"]["hits"]
             if len(result) == 0:
+                count_documents = self.get_document_count(index=index, headers=headers)
+                if count_documents == 0:
+                    logger.warning("Index is empty. First add some documents to search them.")
                 count_embeddings = self.get_embedding_count(index=index, headers=headers)
                 if count_embeddings == 0:
-                    raise RequestError(
-                        400, "search_phase_execution_exception", {"error": "No documents with embeddings."}
-                    )
+                    logger.warning("No documents with embeddings. Run the document store's update_embeddings() method.")
         except RequestError as e:
             if e.error == "search_phase_execution_exception":
                 error_message: str = (
-                    "search_phase_execution_exception: Likely some of your stored documents don't have embeddings."
-                    " Run the document store's update_embeddings() method."
+                    "search_phase_execution_exception: Likely some of your stored documents don't have embeddings. "
+                    "Run the document store's update_embeddings() method."
                 )
                 raise RequestError(e.status_code, error_message, e.info)
             raise e
diff --git a/test/document_stores/test_document_store.py b/test/document_stores/test_document_store.py
index bed8d7feb..aa92d16c2 100644
--- a/test/document_stores/test_document_store.py
+++ b/test/document_stores/test_document_store.py
@@ -1319,7 +1319,7 @@ def test_get_document_count_only_documents_without_embedding_arg():
 
 
 @pytest.mark.elasticsearch
-def test_skip_missing_embeddings():
+def test_skip_missing_embeddings(caplog):
     documents = [
         {"content": "text1", "id": "1"},  # a document without embeddings
         {"content": "text2", "id": "2", "embedding": np.random.rand(768).astype(np.float64)},
@@ -1349,8 +1349,9 @@ def test_skip_missing_embeddings():
     document_store.write_documents(documents)
 
     document_store.skip_missing_embeddings = True
-    with pytest.raises(RequestError):
+    with caplog.at_level(logging.WARNING):
         document_store.query_by_embedding(np.random.rand(768).astype(np.float32))
+        assert "No documents with embeddings. Run the document store's update_embeddings() method." in caplog.text
 
 
 @pytest.mark.elasticsearch