diff --git a/cli/lsp/tsc.rs b/cli/lsp/tsc.rs
index 28a3e7583f..71606a05b1 100644
--- a/cli/lsp/tsc.rs
+++ b/cli/lsp/tsc.rs
@@ -2396,7 +2396,13 @@ fn op_exists(state: &mut State, args: SpecifierArgs) -> Result<bool, AnyError> {
   // forrest for the trees as well as it compounds any lsp performance
   // challenges, opening a single document in the editor causes some 3k worth
   // of op_exists requests... :omg:
-  let specifier = state.normalize_specifier(args.specifier)?;
+  let specifier = match state.normalize_specifier(&args.specifier) {
+    Ok(url) => url,
+    // sometimes tsc tries to query invalid specifiers, especially when
+    // something else isn't quite right, so instead of bubbling up the error
+    // back to tsc, we simply swallow it and say the file doesn't exist
+    Err(err) => return Ok(false),
+  };
   let result = state.state_snapshot.documents.exists(&specifier);
   Ok(result)
 }
@@ -3673,6 +3679,31 @@ mod tests {
     );
   }
 
+  #[test]
+  fn test_op_exists() {
+    let (_, state_snapshot, _) = setup(
+      false,
+      json!({
+        "target": "esnext",
+        "module": "esnext",
+        "lib": ["deno.ns", "deno.window"],
+        "noEmit": true,
+      }),
+      &[],
+    );
+    let performance = Arc::new(Performance::default());
+    let mut state = State::new(state_snapshot, performance);
+    let actual = op_exists(
+      &mut state,
+      SpecifierArgs {
+        specifier: "/error/unknown:something/index.d.ts".to_string(),
+      },
+    );
+    assert!(actual.is_ok());
+    let actual = actual.unwrap();
+    assert!(!actual);
+  }
+
   #[test]
   fn test_completion_entry_filter_text() {
     let fixture = CompletionEntry {