diff --git a/js/misc/extensionUtils.js b/js/misc/extensionUtils.js
index 1d1221c35..aff91acc7 100644
--- a/js/misc/extensionUtils.js
+++ b/js/misc/extensionUtils.js
@@ -21,14 +21,25 @@ const ExtensionType = {
 // Maps uuid -> metadata object
 const extensions = {};
 
+/**
+ * getCurrentExtension:
+ *
+ * Returns the current extension, or null if not called from an extension.
+ */
 function getCurrentExtension() {
-    let stack = (new Error()).stack;
+    let stack = (new Error()).stack.split('\n');
+    let extensionStackLine;
 
-    // Assuming we're importing this directly from an extension (and we shouldn't
-    // ever not be), its UUID should be directly in the path here.
-    let extensionStackLine = stack.split('\n')[1];
+    // Search for an occurrence of an extension stack frame
+    // Start at 1 because 0 is the stack frame of this function
+    for (let i = 1; i < stack.length; i++) {
+        if (stack[i].indexOf('/gnome-shell/extensions/') > -1) {
+            extensionStackLine = stack[i];
+            break;
+        }
+    }
     if (!extensionStackLine)
-        throw new Error('Could not find current extension');
+        return null;
 
     // The stack line is like:
     //   init([object Object])@/home/user/data/gnome-shell/extensions/u@u.id/prefs.js:8
@@ -38,7 +49,7 @@ function getCurrentExtension() {
     //   @/home/user/data/gnome-shell/extensions/u@u.id/prefs.js:8
     let match = new RegExp('@(.+):\\d+').exec(extensionStackLine);
     if (!match)
-        throw new Error('Could not find current extension');
+        return null;
 
     let path = match[1];
     let file = Gio.File.new_for_path(path);
@@ -52,7 +63,7 @@ function getCurrentExtension() {
         file = file.get_parent();
     }
 
-    throw new Error('Could not find current extension');
+    return null;
 }
 
 /**