diff --git a/scripts/build-po.sh b/scripts/build-po.sh
index c012b4cf4..704402ec4 100755
--- a/scripts/build-po.sh
+++ b/scripts/build-po.sh
@@ -3,5 +3,5 @@ EXPORT_LANGS=("de" "es" "fr" "fi" "hy" "id" "ko" "nl" "pl" "pt_BR" "ru" "sk" "sv
 
 for i in ${EXPORT_LANGS[@]}; do
   echo "compiling $i.po..."
-  mkdir -p "po/locale/$i/LC_MESSAGES/" && msgfmt "po/$i.po" -o "po/locale/$i/LC_MESSAGES/furnace.mo"
+  mkdir -p "po/locale/$i/LC_MESSAGES/" && msgfmt "po/$i.po" -o "po/locale/$i/LC_MESSAGES/furnace.mo" || exit 1
 done
diff --git a/scripts/update-po.sh b/scripts/update-po.sh
index 07d3f37e1..a3f740748 100755
--- a/scripts/update-po.sh
+++ b/scripts/update-po.sh
@@ -19,9 +19,9 @@ cd po
 for i in ${EXPORT_LANGS[@]}; do
   if [ -e "$i".po ]; then
     echo "merging $i"".po..."
-    msgmerge --backup=none -U "$i".po furnace.pot
+    msgmerge --backup=none -U "$i".po furnace.pot || exit 1
   else
     echo "creating $i"".po..."
-    msginit -i furnace.pot -l "$i".UTF-8 --no-translator
+    msginit -i furnace.pot -l "$i".UTF-8 --no-translator || exit 1
   fi
 done