diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/convert.go b/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/convert.go
index b8dabddc1f2..e38d4971127 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/convert.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/convert.go
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ func toPullableImageID(id string, image *dockertypes.ImageInspect) string {
 	// Default to the image ID, but if RepoDigests is not empty, use
 	// the first digest instead.
 	imageID := DockerImageIDPrefix + id
-	if len(image.RepoDigests) > 0 {
+	if image != nil && len(image.RepoDigests) > 0 {
 		imageID = DockerPullableImageIDPrefix + image.RepoDigests[0]
 	}
 	return imageID
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/docker_container.go b/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/docker_container.go
index 7bf5622d807..e7c3d0c26e6 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/docker_container.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/dockershim/docker_container.go
@@ -347,7 +347,10 @@ func (ds *dockerService) ContainerStatus(_ context.Context, req *runtimeapi.Cont
 	// Convert the image id to a pullable id.
 	ir, err := ds.client.InspectImageByID(r.Image)
 	if err != nil {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unable to inspect docker image %q while inspecting docker container %q: %v", r.Image, containerID, err)
+		if !libdocker.IsImageNotFoundError(err) {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("unable to inspect docker image %q while inspecting docker container %q: %v", r.Image, containerID, err)
+		}
+		klog.Warningf("ignore error image %q not found while inspecting docker container %q: %v", r.Image, containerID, err)
 	}
 	imageID := toPullableImageID(r.Image, ir)