diff --git a/weed/command/filer_meta_tail_non_elastic.go b/weed/command/filer_meta_tail_non_elastic.go
index 7bb6fa2aba..e61b98e032 100644
--- a/weed/command/filer_meta_tail_non_elastic.go
+++ b/weed/command/filer_meta_tail_non_elastic.go
@@ -3,11 +3,11 @@
 package command
 
 import (
+	"fmt"
+
 	"github.com/seaweedfs/seaweedfs/weed/pb/filer_pb"
 )
 
 func sendToElasticSearchFunc(servers string, esIndex string) (func(resp *filer_pb.SubscribeMetadataResponse) error, error) {
-	return func(resp *filer_pb.SubscribeMetadataResponse) error {
-		return nil
-	}, nil
+	return nil, fmt.Errorf("this weed binary was built without Elasticsearch support. Rebuild with `-tags elastic` (see docker/Dockerfile.go_build) to use -es/-es.index")
 }