diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/storage_layer.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/storage_layer.rs
index 2801ff95b1..10dc0d3bdc 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/storage_layer.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/storage_layer.rs
@@ -1156,6 +1156,7 @@ impl DownloadedLayer {
             .as_ref()
             .map_err(|e| {
                 // errors are not clonabled, cannot but stringify
+                // test_broken_timeline matches this string
                 anyhow::anyhow!("layer loading failed: {e:#}")
             })
     }
diff --git a/test_runner/regress/test_broken_timeline.py b/test_runner/regress/test_broken_timeline.py
index 57e9413aa3..df87767f8f 100644
--- a/test_runner/regress/test_broken_timeline.py
+++ b/test_runner/regress/test_broken_timeline.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ def test_broken_timeline(neon_env_builder: NeonEnvBuilder):
 
     env.pageserver.allowed_errors.extend(
         [
-            ".*Failed to load delta layer.*",
+            ".*layer loading failed:.*",
             ".*could not find data for key.*",
             ".*is not active. Current state: Broken.*",
             ".*will not become active. Current state: Broken.*",
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ def test_broken_timeline(neon_env_builder: NeonEnvBuilder):
     # Third timeline will also fail during basebackup, because the layer file is corrupt.
     # It will fail when we try to read (and reconstruct) a page from it, ergo the error message.
     # (We don't check layer file contents on startup, when loading the timeline)
-    with pytest.raises(Exception, match="Failed to load delta layer") as err:
+    with pytest.raises(Exception, match="layer loading failed:") as err:
         pg3.start()
     log.info(
         f"As expected, compute startup failed for timeline {tenant3}/{timeline3} with corrupt layers: {err}"
diff --git a/test_runner/regress/test_tenants_with_remote_storage.py b/test_runner/regress/test_tenants_with_remote_storage.py
index 2925f8c2da..eb0121eae3 100644
--- a/test_runner/regress/test_tenants_with_remote_storage.py
+++ b/test_runner/regress/test_tenants_with_remote_storage.py
@@ -239,9 +239,7 @@ def test_tenant_redownloads_truncated_file_on_startup(
 
     assert isinstance(env.remote_storage, LocalFsStorage)
 
-    env.pageserver.allowed_errors.append(
-        ".*removing local file .* because it has unexpected length.*"
-    )
+    env.pageserver.allowed_errors.append(".*removing local file .* because .*")
 
     # FIXME: Are these expected?
     env.pageserver.allowed_errors.append(