diff --git a/src/uu/tail/src/error.rs b/src/uu/tail/src/error.rs
index 2d0fdc40a32..d1525bdf0a9 100644
--- a/src/uu/tail/src/error.rs
+++ b/src/uu/tail/src/error.rs
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ impl TailErrorHandler {
                     false,
                 )?;
             }
-            TailError::Stat(_) | TailError::Read(_) => {
+            TailError::Stat(_) | TailError::Read(_) if self.input.path().is_some() => {
                 // unwrap is safe here because only TailError::Open doesn't produce a File
                 let file = file.unwrap();
                 match file.metadata() {
@@ -189,6 +189,11 @@ impl TailErrorHandler {
                     }
                 }
             }
+            // FIXME: We're here on windows if the input was stdin, because we don't have a path on
+            // windows for stdin. Currently, the follow module depends on having a path for all
+            // inputs. This should be fixed. For now, we print the error message but don't follow
+            // the input and effectively do nothing.
+            TailError::Stat(_) | TailError::Read(_) => {}
         }
 
         Ok(())