diff --git a/lbrynet/core/utils.py b/lbrynet/core/utils.py
index 9bd5935d4..598d6d793 100644
--- a/lbrynet/core/utils.py
+++ b/lbrynet/core/utils.py
@@ -78,8 +78,10 @@ def obfuscate(plain):
 def check_connection(server="www.lbry.io", port=80):
     """Attempts to open a socket to server:port and returns True if successful."""
     try:
+        log.debug('Checking connection to %s:%s', server, port)
         host = socket.gethostbyname(server)
         s = socket.create_connection((host, port), 2)
+        log.debug('Connection successful')
         return True
     except Exception as ex:
         log.info(
diff --git a/lbrynet/lbrynet_daemon/DaemonControl.py b/lbrynet/lbrynet_daemon/DaemonControl.py
index f16728fa4..abf18bb5f 100644
--- a/lbrynet/lbrynet_daemon/DaemonControl.py
+++ b/lbrynet/lbrynet_daemon/DaemonControl.py
@@ -78,12 +78,14 @@ def start():
     log.debug('Final Settings: %s', settings.__dict__)
 
     try:
+        log.debug('Checking for an existing lbrynet daemon instance')
         JSONRPCProxy.from_url(settings.API_CONNECTION_STRING).is_running()
         log.info("lbrynet-daemon is already running")
         if not args.logtoconsole:
             print "lbrynet-daemon is already running"
         return
-    except:
+    except Exception:
+        log.debug('No lbrynet instance found, continuing to start')
         pass
 
     log.info("Starting lbrynet-daemon from command line")