diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 958c247829..765293ec16 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -323,10 +323,10 @@ if(LIB_INSTALL_DIR)
 endif()
 
 if (NOT EXISTS "${MBEDTLS_FRAMEWORK_DIR}/CMakeLists.txt")
-    if (NOT EXISTS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/.git/")
-        message(FATAL_ERROR "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/.git/ not found. Please ensure you have downloaded a release version of Mbed TLS from GitHub.")
+    if (EXISTS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/.git/")
+        message(FATAL_ERROR "${MBEDTLS_FRAMEWORK_DIR}/CMakeLists.txt not found (and does appear to be a git checkout). Run `git submodule update --init` from the source tree to fetch the submodule contents.")
     else ()
-        message(FATAL_ERROR "${MBEDTLS_FRAMEWORK_DIR}/CMakeLists.txt not found. Run `git submodule update --init` from the source tree to fetch the submodule contents.")
+        message(FATAL_ERROR "${MBEDTLS_FRAMEWORK_DIR}/CMakeLists.txt not found (and does not appear to be a git checkout). Please ensure you have downloaded the right archive from the release page on GitHub.")
     endif()
 endif()
 add_subdirectory(framework)
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 07eb5567af..6e10cf6f0a 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -6,23 +6,15 @@ ifneq (,$(filter-out lib library/%,$(or $(MAKECMDGOALS),all)))
     ifeq (,$(wildcard framework/exported.make))
         # Use the define keyword to get a multi-line message.
         # GNU make appends ".  Stop.", so tweak the ending of our message accordingly.
-        define error_message
-$(MBEDTLS_PATH)/framework/exported.make not found.
-Run `git submodule update --init` to fetch the submodule contents.
-This is a fatal error
-        endef
         ifeq (,$(wildcard .git))
-          define error_message
-$(MBEDTLS_PATH)/.git/ not found.
-Please ensure you have downloaded a release version of Mbed TLS from GitHub.
+            define error_message
+${MBEDTLS_FRAMEWORK_DIR}/CMakeLists.txt not found (and does appear to be a git checkout). Run `git submodule update --init` from the source tree to fetch the submodule contents.
 This is a fatal error
           endef
         else
           define error_message
-$(MBEDTLS_PATH)/framework/exported.make not found.
-Run `git submodule update --init` to fetch the submodule contents.
-This is a fatal error
-          endef
+${MBEDTLS_FRAMEWORK_DIR}/CMakeLists.txt not found (and does not appear to be a git checkout). Please ensure you have downloaded the right archive from the release page on GitHub.
+        endef
         endif
         $(error $(error_message))
     endif