diff --git a/src/internal/operations/backup.go b/src/internal/operations/backup.go
index 0f34a137e..82865231a 100644
--- a/src/internal/operations/backup.go
+++ b/src/internal/operations/backup.go
@@ -245,8 +245,7 @@ func (op *BackupOperation) do(
 		op.store,
 		reasons, fallbackReasons,
 		op.account.ID(),
-		op.incremental,
-		op.Errors)
+		op.incremental)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, clues.Wrap(err, "producing manifests and metadata")
 	}
diff --git a/src/internal/operations/manifests.go b/src/internal/operations/manifests.go
index 5701561e8..11f218c4b 100644
--- a/src/internal/operations/manifests.go
+++ b/src/internal/operations/manifests.go
@@ -46,7 +46,6 @@ func produceManifestsAndMetadata(
 	reasons, fallbackReasons []kopia.Reason,
 	tenantID string,
 	getMetadata bool,
-	errs *fault.Bus,
 ) ([]*kopia.ManifestEntry, []data.RestoreCollection, bool, error) {
 	var (
 		tags          = map[string]string{kopia.TagBackupCategory: ""}
@@ -151,7 +150,17 @@ func produceManifestsAndMetadata(
 			return ms, nil, false, nil
 		}
 
-		colls, err := collectMetadata(mctx, mr, man, metadataFiles, tenantID, errs)
+		// a local fault.Bus intance is used to collect metadata files here.
+		// we avoid the global fault.Bus because all failures here are ignorable,
+		// and cascading errors up to the operation can cause a conflict that forces
+		// the operation into a failure state unnecessarily.
+		// TODO(keepers): this is not a pattern we want to
+		// spread around.  Need to find more idiomatic handling.
+		fb := fault.New(true)
+
+		colls, err := collectMetadata(mctx, mr, man, metadataFiles, tenantID, fb)
+		LogFaultErrors(ctx, fb.Errors(), "collecting metadata")
+
 		if err != nil && !errors.Is(err, data.ErrNotFound) {
 			// prior metadata isn't guaranteed to exist.
 			// if it doesn't, we'll just have to do a
@@ -162,7 +171,11 @@ func produceManifestsAndMetadata(
 		collections = append(collections, colls...)
 	}
 
-	return ms, collections, true, err
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, nil, false, err
+	}
+
+	return ms, collections, true, nil
 }
 
 // unionManifests reduces the two manifest slices into a single slice.
diff --git a/src/internal/operations/manifests_test.go b/src/internal/operations/manifests_test.go
index 86861d8c4..3dfd25dec 100644
--- a/src/internal/operations/manifests_test.go
+++ b/src/internal/operations/manifests_test.go
@@ -678,8 +678,7 @@ func (suite *OperationsManifestsUnitSuite) TestProduceManifestsAndMetadata() {
 				&test.gb,
 				test.reasons, nil,
 				tid,
-				test.getMeta,
-				fault.New(true))
+				test.getMeta)
 			test.assertErr(t, err, clues.ToCore(err))
 			test.assertB(t, b)
 
@@ -844,8 +843,7 @@ func (suite *OperationsManifestsUnitSuite) TestProduceManifestsAndMetadata_fallb
 				[]kopia.Reason{manReason},
 				[]kopia.Reason{fbReason},
 				"tid",
-				false,
-				fault.New(true))
+				false)
 			require.NoError(t, err, clues.ToCore(err))
 			assert.False(t, b, "no-metadata is forced for this test")