diff --git a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
index 85ad37a69a75..c3cee7d5db7a 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
@@ -172,6 +172,7 @@ field. You can revert this change by configuring tags for the module and omittin
 - Server-side TLS config now validates certificate and key are both specified {pull}19584[19584]
 - Fix terminating pod autodiscover issue. {pull}20084[20084]
 - Fix seccomp policy for calls to `chmod` and `chown`. {pull}20054[20054]
+- Output errors when Kibana index pattern setup fails. {pull}20121[20121]
 
 *Auditbeat*
 
diff --git a/libbeat/dashboards/importer.go b/libbeat/dashboards/importer.go
index eb399ba1b3d8..178a58372842 100644
--- a/libbeat/dashboards/importer.go
+++ b/libbeat/dashboards/importer.go
@@ -300,7 +300,9 @@ func (imp Importer) ImportKibanaDir(dir string) error {
 
 	// Loads the internal index pattern
 	if imp.fields != nil {
-		imp.loader.ImportIndex(imp.fields)
+		if err = imp.loader.ImportIndex(imp.fields); err != nil {
+			return errw.Wrap(err, "failed to import Kibana index pattern")
+		}
 	}
 
 	dir = path.Join(dir, versionPath)