diff --git a/component/src/services/openAI/openAIAssistantIO.ts b/component/src/services/openAI/openAIAssistantIO.ts
index 27ae6e2ad..684031d1e 100644
--- a/component/src/services/openAI/openAIAssistantIO.ts
+++ b/component/src/services/openAI/openAIAssistantIO.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import {OpenAIAssistantUtils, UploadedFile} from './utils/openAIAssistantUtils';
 import {MessageStream} from '../../views/chat/messages/stream/messageStream';
 import {FileMessageUtils} from '../../views/chat/messages/fileMessageUtils';
 import {OpenAIConverseBodyInternal} from '../../types/openAIInternal';
+import {History} from '../../views/chat/messages/history/history';
 import {DirectConnection} from '../../types/directConnection';
 import {MessageLimitUtils} from '../utils/messageLimitUtils';
 import {MessageContentI} from '../../types/messagesInternal';
@@ -44,7 +45,7 @@ export class OpenAIAssistantIO extends DirectServiceIO {
   private static readonly NEW_ASSISTANT_URL = 'https://api.openai.com/v1/assistants';
   private static readonly POLLING_TIMEOUT_MS = 800;
   private readonly _functionHandler?: AssistantFunctionHandler;
-  permittedErrorPrefixes = ['Incorrect', 'Please send text'];
+  permittedErrorPrefixes = ['Incorrect', 'Please send text', History.FAILED_ERROR_MESSAGE];
   private messages?: Messages;
   private run_id?: string;
   private searchedForThreadId = false;
@@ -88,7 +89,7 @@ export class OpenAIAssistantIO extends DirectServiceIO {
       this.deepChat.disableSubmitButton(false);
       return threadMessages;
     } catch (e) {
-      return [{error: 'failed to fetch thread history'}];
+      return [{error: 'Failed to fetch history'}];
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/component/src/services/serviceIO.ts b/component/src/services/serviceIO.ts
index 44e9d88a4..01dac2ba5 100644
--- a/component/src/services/serviceIO.ts
+++ b/component/src/services/serviceIO.ts
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ export interface ServiceIO {
 
   introPanelMarkUp?: string;
 
-  // the reason why we use a Set of prefixes to allow certain errors is because some errors can change
+  // the reason why we use a set of prefixes to allow certain errors is because some errors can change
   // depending on the input e.g. incorrect image dimensions or formatting, hence we identify the permitted
   // service errors via prefixes
   permittedErrorPrefixes?: CustomErrors;
diff --git a/component/src/services/utils/baseServiceIO.ts b/component/src/services/utils/baseServiceIO.ts
index ebf709bea..9a4182ae2 100644
--- a/component/src/services/utils/baseServiceIO.ts
+++ b/component/src/services/utils/baseServiceIO.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import {CameraFilesServiceConfig, MicrophoneFilesServiceConfig} from '../../types/fileServiceConfigs';
+import {History} from '../../views/chat/messages/history/history';
 import {MessageContentI} from '../../types/messagesInternal';
 import {Messages} from '../../views/chat/messages/messages';
 import {RequestUtils} from '../../utils/HTTP/requestUtils';
@@ -53,6 +54,7 @@ export class BaseServiceIO implements ServiceIO {
     if (this.demo) this.connectSettings.url ??= Demo.URL;
     if (this.connectSettings.websocket) Websocket.setup(this);
     this.stream = this.deepChat.connect?.stream || Legacy.checkForStream(this.deepChat);
+    if (deepChat.loadHistory) History.addErrorPrefix(this);
   }
 
   private static canSendMessage(text?: string, files?: File[], isProgrammatic?: boolean) {
diff --git a/component/src/views/chat/messages/history/history.ts b/component/src/views/chat/messages/history/history.ts
index f2105a102..4b35c6fca 100644
--- a/component/src/views/chat/messages/history/history.ts
+++ b/component/src/views/chat/messages/history/history.ts
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import {Messages} from '../messages';
 
 export class History {
   private readonly _messages: Messages;
+  public static readonly FAILED_ERROR_MESSAGE = 'Failed to load history';
   private _isLoading = false;
   private _isPaginationComplete = false;
   private _index = 0;
@@ -33,7 +34,6 @@ export class History {
   private processLoadedHistory(historyMessages: HistoryMessage[]) {
     const firstMessageEl = this._messages.messageElementRefs[0]?.outerContainer;
     const currentScrollTop = this._messages.elementRef.scrollTop;
-    // WORK - don't add at start if intro message
     historyMessages
       ?.reverse()
       .map((message) => {
@@ -56,10 +56,17 @@ export class History {
       if (!this._isLoading && !this._isPaginationComplete && this._messages.elementRef.scrollTop === 0) {
         this._isLoading = true;
         const loadingElements = LoadingHistory.addLoadHistoryMessage(this._messages, false);
-        const messages = await loadHistory(this._index++);
-        this._messages.removeMessage(loadingElements);
-        this.processLoadedHistory(messages);
-        this._isLoading = false;
+        try {
+          const messages = await loadHistory(this._index++);
+          this._messages.removeMessage(loadingElements);
+          this.processLoadedHistory(messages);
+          this._isLoading = false;
+        } catch (e) {
+          this._messages.removeMessage(loadingElements);
+          this._isPaginationComplete = true;
+          this._messages.addNewErrorMessage('service', History.FAILED_ERROR_MESSAGE, true);
+          console.error(e);
+        }
       }
     };
   }
@@ -74,17 +81,23 @@ export class History {
   private async loadInitialHistory(loadHistory: LoadHistory) {
     this._isLoading = true;
     const loadingElements = LoadingHistory.addLoadHistoryMessage(this._messages);
-    // WORK - error handling
-    const messages = await loadHistory(this._index++);
-    const scrollTop = this._messages.elementRef.scrollTop;
-    this._messages.removeMessage(loadingElements);
-    this._isPaginationComplete = !!messages.find((message) => !message);
-    const messageContent = messages.filter((message) => !!message);
-    this.processLoadedHistory(messageContent as MessageContent[]);
-    // force scroll to bottom if user has not scrolled anywhere themselves, otherwise keep at current location
-    if (scrollTop === 0) {
-      // https://github.com/OvidijusParsiunas/deep-chat/issues/84
-      setTimeout(() => ElementUtils.scrollToBottom(this._messages.elementRef), 0);
+    try {
+      const messages = await loadHistory(this._index++);
+      const scrollTop = this._messages.elementRef.scrollTop;
+      this._messages.removeMessage(loadingElements);
+      this._isPaginationComplete = !!messages.find((message) => !message);
+      const messageContent = messages.filter((message) => !!message);
+      this.processLoadedHistory(messageContent as MessageContent[]);
+      // force scroll to bottom if user has not scrolled anywhere themselves, otherwise keep at current location
+      if (scrollTop === 0) {
+        // https://github.com/OvidijusParsiunas/deep-chat/issues/84
+        setTimeout(() => ElementUtils.scrollToBottom(this._messages.elementRef), 0);
+      }
+    } catch (e) {
+      this._messages.removeMessage(loadingElements);
+      this._isPaginationComplete = true;
+      this._messages.addNewErrorMessage('service', History.FAILED_ERROR_MESSAGE, true);
+      console.error(e);
     }
     this._isLoading = false;
   }
@@ -99,4 +112,9 @@ export class History {
       this._index += 1;
     }
   }
+
+  public static addErrorPrefix(io: ServiceIO) {
+    io.permittedErrorPrefixes ??= [];
+    io.permittedErrorPrefixes.push(History.FAILED_ERROR_MESSAGE);
+  }
 }
diff --git a/component/src/views/chat/messages/messages.ts b/component/src/views/chat/messages/messages.ts
index 00c29eeb8..0a726f1d4 100644
--- a/component/src/views/chat/messages/messages.ts
+++ b/component/src/views/chat/messages/messages.ts
@@ -182,20 +182,19 @@ export class Messages extends MessagesBase {
   }
 
   // prettier-ignore
-  public addNewErrorMessage(type: keyof Omit<ErrorMessageOverrides, 'default'>, message?: ErrorResp) {
+  public addNewErrorMessage(type: keyof Omit<ErrorMessageOverrides, 'default'>, message?: ErrorResp, isTop = false) {
     this.removeMessageOnError();
-    const messageElements = Messages.createBaseElements();
-    const {outerContainer, bubbleElement} = messageElements;
-    bubbleElement.classList.add('error-message-text');
     const text = this.getPermittedMessage(message) || this._errorMessageOverrides?.[type]
       || this._errorMessageOverrides?.default || 'Error, please try again.';
+    const messageElements = this.createMessageElementsOnOrientation(text, '', isTop);
+    const {bubbleElement, outerContainer} = messageElements;
+    bubbleElement.classList.add('error-message-text');
     this.renderText(bubbleElement, text);
     const fontElementStyles = MessageStyleUtils.extractParticularSharedStyles(['fontSize', 'fontFamily'],
       this.messageStyles?.default);
     MessageStyleUtils.applyCustomStylesToElements(messageElements, false, fontElementStyles);
     MessageStyleUtils.applyCustomStylesToElements(messageElements, false, this.messageStyles?.error);
-    this.elementRef.appendChild(outerContainer);
-    ElementUtils.scrollToBottom(this.elementRef);
+    if (!isTop) this.elementRef.appendChild(outerContainer);
     if (this.textToSpeech) TextToSpeech.speak(text, this.textToSpeech);
     this._onError?.(text);
   }