diff --git a/main/src/com/google/refine/ProjectMetadata.java b/main/src/com/google/refine/ProjectMetadata.java
index d36ca4228..b1ce74fb8 100644
--- a/main/src/com/google/refine/ProjectMetadata.java
+++ b/main/src/com/google/refine/ProjectMetadata.java
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ public class ProjectMetadata implements Jsonizable {
         writer.endObject();
     }
     
-    public void write(JSONWriter jsonWriter) throws Exception {
+    public void write(JSONWriter jsonWriter) throws JSONException  {
         Properties options = new Properties();
         options.setProperty("mode", "save");
 
diff --git a/main/src/com/google/refine/io/FileProjectManager.java b/main/src/com/google/refine/io/FileProjectManager.java
index 4cbbc9f89..472c1df2d 100644
--- a/main/src/com/google/refine/io/FileProjectManager.java
+++ b/main/src/com/google/refine/io/FileProjectManager.java
@@ -231,6 +231,9 @@ public class FileProjectManager extends ProjectManager {
     /**
      * Save the workspace's data out to file in a safe way: save to a temporary file first
      * and rename it to the real file.
+     * <p>
+     * FIXME: Even though this attempts to be safe by writing new file and renaming,
+     * it's still possible for it to corrupt things.
      */
     @Override
     protected void saveWorkspace() {
@@ -273,11 +276,7 @@ public class FileProjectManager extends ProjectManager {
                 if (metadata != null) {
                     jsonWriter.value(id);
 
-                    try {
-                        ProjectMetadataUtilities.save(metadata, getProjectDir(id));
-                    } catch (Exception e) {
-                        e.printStackTrace();
-                    }
+                    ProjectMetadataUtilities.save(metadata, getProjectDir(id));
                 }
             }
             jsonWriter.endArray();
diff --git a/main/src/com/google/refine/io/ProjectMetadataUtilities.java b/main/src/com/google/refine/io/ProjectMetadataUtilities.java
index 46180feae..49d376bf9 100644
--- a/main/src/com/google/refine/io/ProjectMetadataUtilities.java
+++ b/main/src/com/google/refine/io/ProjectMetadataUtilities.java
@@ -36,9 +36,11 @@ package com.google.refine.io;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.FileReader;
+import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
 import java.io.Writer;
 
+import org.json.JSONException;
 import org.json.JSONObject;
 import org.json.JSONTokener;
 import org.json.JSONWriter;
@@ -51,16 +53,9 @@ import com.google.refine.ProjectMetadata;
 public class ProjectMetadataUtilities {
     final static Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger("project_metadata_utilities");
 
-    public static void save(ProjectMetadata projectMeta, File projectDir) throws Exception {
+    public static void save(ProjectMetadata projectMeta, File projectDir) throws JSONException, IOException  {
         File tempFile = new File(projectDir, "metadata.temp.json");
-        try {
-            saveToFile(projectMeta, tempFile);
-        } catch (Exception e) {
-            e.printStackTrace();
-
-            logger.warn("Failed to save project metadata");
-            return;
-        }
+        saveToFile(projectMeta, tempFile);
 
         File file = new File(projectDir, "metadata.json");
         File oldFile = new File(projectDir, "metadata.old.json");
@@ -75,7 +70,7 @@ public class ProjectMetadataUtilities {
         }
     }
 
-    protected static void saveToFile(ProjectMetadata projectMeta, File metadataFile) throws Exception {
+    protected static void saveToFile(ProjectMetadata projectMeta, File metadataFile) throws JSONException, IOException   {
         Writer writer = new OutputStreamWriter(new FileOutputStream(metadataFile));
         try {
             JSONWriter jsonWriter = new JSONWriter(writer);