diff --git a/Tusker/Views/Status/TimelineStatusTableViewCell.swift b/Tusker/Views/Status/TimelineStatusTableViewCell.swift
index de2144533b..3580f1215e 100644
--- a/Tusker/Views/Status/TimelineStatusTableViewCell.swift
+++ b/Tusker/Views/Status/TimelineStatusTableViewCell.swift
@@ -123,8 +123,9 @@ class TimelineStatusTableViewCell: BaseStatusTableViewCell {
     private func updateTimestamp() {
         // if the mastodonController is nil (i.e. the delegate is nil), then the screen this cell was a part of has been deallocated
         // so we bail out immediately, since there's nothing to update
-        guard let mastodonController = mastodonController else { return }
-        guard let status = mastodonController.persistentContainer.status(for: statusID) else { fatalError("Missing cached status \(statusID!)") }
+        // if the status cannot be found, it may have already been discarded due to not being on screen, so we do nothing
+        guard let mastodonController = mastodonController,
+              let status = mastodonController.persistentContainer.status(for: statusID) else { return }
         
         doUpdateTimestamp(status: status)
     }