diff --git a/src/emsdevice.cpp b/src/emsdevice.cpp
index fa0c2112f..7fb293b35 100644
--- a/src/emsdevice.cpp
+++ b/src/emsdevice.cpp
@@ -1505,6 +1505,10 @@ bool EMSdevice::get_value_info(JsonObject & output, const char * cmd, const int8
                     output["api_data"] = data;
                     return true;
                 } else {
+                    char error[100];
+                    snprintf(error, sizeof(error), "cannot find attribute %s in entity %s", attribute_s, command_s);
+                    output.clear();
+                    output["message"] = error;
                     return false;
                 }
             }
@@ -1513,6 +1517,9 @@ bool EMSdevice::get_value_info(JsonObject & output, const char * cmd, const int8
         }
     }
 
+    char error[100];
+    snprintf(error, sizeof(error), "cannot find values for entity '%s'", cmd);
+    json["message"] = error;
     return false;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/mqtt.cpp b/src/mqtt.cpp
index f497c0c1b..f944b1113 100644
--- a/src/mqtt.cpp
+++ b/src/mqtt.cpp
@@ -250,9 +250,7 @@ void Mqtt::on_message(const char * topic, const uint8_t * payload, size_t len) c
         if ((!strcmp(topic, full_topic)) && (mf.mqtt_subfunction_)) {
             if (!(mf.mqtt_subfunction_)(message)) {
                 LOG_ERROR("error: invalid payload %s for this topic %s", message, topic);
-                if (send_response_) {
-                    Mqtt::queue_publish("response", "error: invalid data");
-                }
+                Mqtt::queue_publish("response", "error: invalid data");
             }
             return;
         }