diff --git a/packages/wf-brainscales2-demos/package.py b/packages/wf-brainscales2-demos/package.py
index 2b0e7bbb01a51a80869a7f9f5723cee76a9ada67..59c505af874d496e07e40a15ed4a4b53e19e4dec 100644
--- a/packages/wf-brainscales2-demos/package.py
+++ b/packages/wf-brainscales2-demos/package.py
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ class WfBrainscales2Demos(Package):
         try:
             # execute notebook and save
             jupyter(*args)
-        except Exception as e:
+        except ProcessError as e:
             # if the above fails, re-run notebook to produce output with error
             jupyter(*(args+["--allow-errors"]))
             raise
diff --git a/packages/wf-multi-area-model/package.py b/packages/wf-multi-area-model/package.py
index 76db0cf2097ab9dab37df5f290378ba74535d8d3..b8ff5feb8f4326cc8e756885b10e540904bf1632 100644
--- a/packages/wf-multi-area-model/package.py
+++ b/packages/wf-multi-area-model/package.py
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ class WfMultiAreaModel(Package):
         try:
             # execute notebook and save
             jupyter(*args)
-        except Exception as e:
+        except ProcessError as e:
             # if the above fails, re-run notebook to produce output with error
             jupyter(*(args+["--allow-errors"]))
             raise