diff --git a/packages/lib/models/Setting.ts b/packages/lib/models/Setting.ts
index 173f3d0d6e..c18b3396da 100644
--- a/packages/lib/models/Setting.ts
+++ b/packages/lib/models/Setting.ts
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import FileHandler, { SettingValues } from './settings/FileHandler';
 import Logger from '../Logger';
 import mergeGlobalAndLocalSettings from '../services/profileConfig/mergeGlobalAndLocalSettings';
 import splitGlobalAndLocalSettings from '../services/profileConfig/splitGlobalAndLocalSettings';
+import JoplinError from '../JoplinError';
 const { sprintf } = require('sprintf-js');
 const ObjectUtils = require('../ObjectUtils');
 const { toTitleCase } = require('../string-utils.js');
@@ -1810,7 +1811,7 @@ class Setting extends BaseModel {
 
 	public static settingMetadata(key: string): SettingItem {
 		const metadata = this.metadata();
-		if (!(key in metadata)) throw new Error(`Unknown key: ${key}`);
+		if (!(key in metadata)) throw new JoplinError(`Unknown key: ${key}`, 'unknown_key');
 		const output = Object.assign({}, metadata[key]);
 		output.key = key;
 		return output;
diff --git a/packages/lib/services/profileConfig/mergeGlobalAndLocalSettings.ts b/packages/lib/services/profileConfig/mergeGlobalAndLocalSettings.ts
index e5dfacf4c6..f296eed8ae 100644
--- a/packages/lib/services/profileConfig/mergeGlobalAndLocalSettings.ts
+++ b/packages/lib/services/profileConfig/mergeGlobalAndLocalSettings.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
+import Logger from '../../Logger';
 import Setting from '../../models/Setting';
 
+const logger = Logger.create('mergeGlobalAndLocalSettings');
+
 export default (rootSettings: Record<string, any>, subProfileSettings: Record<string, any>) => {
 	const output: Record<string, any> = { ...subProfileSettings };
 
@@ -12,9 +15,20 @@ export default (rootSettings: Record<string, any>, subProfileSettings: Record<st
 	}
 
 	for (const k of Object.keys(rootSettings)) {
-		const md = Setting.settingMetadata(k);
-		if (md.isGlobal) {
-			output[k] = rootSettings[k];
+		try {
+			const md = Setting.settingMetadata(k);
+			if (md.isGlobal) {
+				output[k] = rootSettings[k];
+			}
+		} catch (error) {
+			if (error.code === 'unknown_key') {
+				// The root settings may contain plugin parameters, but the
+				// sub-profile won't necessarily have these plugins. In that
+				// case, the app will throw an error, but we can ignore it since
+				// we don't need this particular setting.
+				// https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/8143
+				logger.info(`Ignoring unknown key in root settings: ${k}`);
+			}
 		}
 	}