diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/revs.js b/app/assets/javascripts/revs.js.erb
similarity index 97%
rename from app/assets/javascripts/revs.js
rename to app/assets/javascripts/revs.js.erb
index 23b703d0..1de2c622 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/revs.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/revs.js.erb
@@ -501,6 +501,13 @@ function ajax_loading_done(element) {
     }
 }
 
+// if there are any ajax errors (e.g. 500 or timeout on the server), show a generic error message so the user
+// knows something bad happened,  e.g. when a curator is editing metadata, they submit ajax forms
+$(document).ajaxError(function myErrorHandler(event, xhr, ajaxOptions, thrownError) {
+	$('#main-flashes').html('<div class="alert alert-danger"><a class="close" href="#" data-dismiss="alert">x</a><%=I18n.t('revs.errors.unexpected')%></div>');
+	window.scrollTo(0,0);
+});
+
 // if the user clicks cancel on a confirm box, we need to hide the ajax loader
 $(document).on('confirm:complete', function(e,answer) {
 	element=$(e.target);
diff --git a/config/locales/en.yml b/config/locales/en.yml
index fb967228..409fa9ed 100644
--- a/config/locales/en.yml
+++ b/config/locales/en.yml
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ en:
       action_browse_collections_linktext: 'Revs collections'
       tell_us_html: '%{href} what you were looking for'
       tell_us_linktext: 'Tell us'
-      unexpected: "Oops! An unexpected error has occurred."
+      unexpected: "An unexpected error has occurred. If you have made changes, they might not have been saved."
       500_message: "We apologize for the inconvenience. The error has been logged and we have notified system administrators. Until we fix the problem, here are some things you can do:"
     actions:
       delete: 'Delete'