diff --git a/kolibri/core/content/api.py b/kolibri/core/content/api.py
index 75ea57f6f4f..2fcc2799554 100644
--- a/kolibri/core/content/api.py
+++ b/kolibri/core/content/api.py
@@ -861,7 +861,7 @@ class ContentNodeViewset(InternalContentNodeMixin, RemoteMixin, ReadOnlyValuesVi
 
     def retrieve(self, request, pk=None):
         if pk is None:
-            raise Http404
+            raise status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST
         if self._should_proxy_request(request):
             if self.get_queryset().filter(admin_imported=True, pk=pk).exists():
                 # Used in the update method for remote request retrieval
diff --git a/kolibri/core/content/public_api.py b/kolibri/core/content/public_api.py
index 7b63db14f47..e6b4e141f98 100644
--- a/kolibri/core/content/public_api.py
+++ b/kolibri/core/content/public_api.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 from django.db import connection
 from django.db.models import Q
 from django.http import HttpResponseBadRequest
+from rest_framework import status
 from rest_framework.response import Response
 from rest_framework.serializers import Serializer
 from rest_framework.viewsets import GenericViewSet
@@ -50,6 +51,8 @@ def retrieve(self, request, pk=None):
         :param pk: id parent node
         :return: an object with keys for each content metadata table and a schema_version key
         """
+        if pk is None:
+            raise status.HTTP_400_BAD_REQUEST
 
         content_schema = request.query_params.get(
             "schema_version", self.default_content_schema
diff --git a/kolibri/core/content/test/test_content_app.py b/kolibri/core/content/test/test_content_app.py
index 8154044443f..025f8d22b94 100644
--- a/kolibri/core/content/test/test_content_app.py
+++ b/kolibri/core/content/test/test_content_app.py
@@ -513,7 +513,7 @@ def test_contentnode_tree_bad_pk(self):
                 kwargs={"pk": "this is not a UUID"},
             )
         )
-        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 404)
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 400)
 
     @unittest.skipIf(
         getattr(settings, "DATABASES")["default"]["ENGINE"]
diff --git a/kolibri/core/content/test/test_public_api.py b/kolibri/core/content/test/test_public_api.py
index 790658d630c..b395a9882a5 100644
--- a/kolibri/core/content/test/test_public_api.py
+++ b/kolibri/core/content/test/test_public_api.py
@@ -95,6 +95,15 @@ def test_schema_version_too_high(self):
         )
         self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 400)
 
+    def test_import_metadata_bad_pk(self):
+        response = self.client.get(
+            reverse(
+                "kolibri:core:importmetadata-detail",
+                kwargs={"pk": "this is not a UUID"},
+            )
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 400)
+
     def test_schema_version_just_right(self):
         response = self.client.get(
             reverse("kolibri:core:importmetadata-detail", kwargs={"pk": self.node.id})