diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c377c511b03..6a79fcaf3ad 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 - [#2165](https://github.com/influxdb/influxdb/pull/2165): Monitoring database and retention policy are not configurable.
 - [#2167](https://github.com/influxdb/influxdb/pull/2167): Add broker log recovery.
 - [#2050](https://github.com/influxdb/influxdb/issues/2050): Refactor `results` to `response`. Breaking Go Client change.
+- [#2166](https://github.com/influxdb/influxdb/pull/2166): Don't panic if presented with a field of unknown type.
 
 ## v0.9.0-rc19 [2015-04-01]
 
diff --git a/database.go b/database.go
index 2c1a58531ec..b2cb800a87c 100644
--- a/database.go
+++ b/database.go
@@ -840,7 +840,12 @@ func (f *FieldCodec) DecodeByID(targetID uint8, b []byte) (interface{}, error) {
 		}
 		field, ok := f.fieldsByID[b[0]]
 		if !ok {
-			panic(fmt.Sprintf("field ID %d has no mapping", b[0]))
+			// This can happen, though is very unlikely. If this node receives encoded data, to be written
+			// to disk, and is queried for that data before its metastore is updated, there will be no field
+			// mapping for the data during decode. All this can happen because data is encoded by the node
+			// that first received the write request, not the node that actually writes the data to disk.
+			// So if this happens, the read must be aborted.
+			return 0, ErrFieldUnmappedID
 		}
 
 		var value interface{}
@@ -875,9 +880,9 @@ func (f *FieldCodec) DecodeByID(targetID uint8, b []byte) (interface{}, error) {
 }
 
 // DecodeFields decodes a byte slice into a set of field ids and values.
-func (f *FieldCodec) DecodeFields(b []byte) map[uint8]interface{} {
+func (f *FieldCodec) DecodeFields(b []byte) (map[uint8]interface{}, error) {
 	if len(b) == 0 {
-		return nil
+		return nil, nil
 	}
 
 	// Create a map to hold the decoded data.
@@ -893,7 +898,8 @@ func (f *FieldCodec) DecodeFields(b []byte) map[uint8]interface{} {
 		fieldID := b[0]
 		field := f.fieldsByID[fieldID]
 		if field == nil {
-			panic(fmt.Sprintf("field ID %d has no mapping", fieldID))
+			// See note in DecodeByID() regarding field-mapping failures.
+			return nil, ErrFieldUnmappedID
 		}
 
 		var value interface{}
@@ -923,12 +929,15 @@ func (f *FieldCodec) DecodeFields(b []byte) map[uint8]interface{} {
 
 	}
 
-	return values
+	return values, nil
 }
 
 // DecodeFieldsWithNames decodes a byte slice into a set of field names and values
-func (f *FieldCodec) DecodeFieldsWithNames(b []byte) map[string]interface{} {
-	fields := f.DecodeFields(b)
+func (f *FieldCodec) DecodeFieldsWithNames(b []byte) (map[string]interface{}, error) {
+	fields, err := f.DecodeFields(b)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
 	m := make(map[string]interface{})
 	for id, v := range fields {
 		field := f.fieldsByID[id]
@@ -936,7 +945,7 @@ func (f *FieldCodec) DecodeFieldsWithNames(b []byte) map[string]interface{} {
 			m[field.Name] = v
 		}
 	}
-	return m
+	return m, nil
 }
 
 // FieldByName returns the field by its name. It will return a nil if not found
diff --git a/influxdb.go b/influxdb.go
index f84d6db635d..0ea79615d3b 100644
--- a/influxdb.go
+++ b/influxdb.go
@@ -121,6 +121,10 @@ var (
 	// ErrFieldNotFound is returned when a field cannot be found.
 	ErrFieldNotFound = errors.New("field not found")
 
+	// ErrFieldUnmappedID is returned when the system is presented, during decode, with a field ID
+	// there is no mapping for.
+	ErrFieldUnmappedID = errors.New("field ID not mapped")
+
 	// ErrSeriesNotFound is returned when looking up a non-existent series by database, name and tags
 	ErrSeriesNotFound = errors.New("series not found")
 
diff --git a/server.go b/server.go
index 9132dedcc77..6b42020b375 100644
--- a/server.go
+++ b/server.go
@@ -2015,8 +2015,8 @@ func (s *Server) ReadSeries(database, retentionPolicy, name string, tags map[str
 
 	// Decode into a raw value map.
 	codec := NewFieldCodec(mm)
-	rawFields := codec.DecodeFields(data)
-	if rawFields == nil {
+	rawFields, err := codec.DecodeFields(data)
+	if err != nil || rawFields == nil {
 		return nil, nil
 	}
 
diff --git a/tx.go b/tx.go
index a394decbcbf..fc1bf578405 100644
--- a/tx.go
+++ b/tx.go
@@ -389,13 +389,14 @@ func (l *LocalMapper) Next() (seriesID uint32, timestamp int64, value interface{
 		var value interface{}
 		var err error
 		if l.isRaw && len(l.selectFields) > 1 {
-			fieldsWithNames := l.decoder.DecodeFieldsWithNames(l.valueBuffer[min])
-			value = fieldsWithNames
+			if fieldsWithNames, err := l.decoder.DecodeFieldsWithNames(l.valueBuffer[min]); err == nil {
+				value = fieldsWithNames
 
-			// if there's a where clause, make sure we don't need to filter this value
-			if l.filters[min] != nil {
-				if !matchesWhere(l.filters[min], fieldsWithNames) {
-					value = nil
+				// if there's a where clause, make sure we don't need to filter this value
+				if l.filters[min] != nil {
+					if !matchesWhere(l.filters[min], fieldsWithNames) {
+						value = nil
+					}
 				}
 			}
 		} else {
@@ -409,8 +410,8 @@ func (l *LocalMapper) Next() (seriesID uint32, timestamp int64, value interface{
 						value = nil
 					}
 				} else { // decode everything
-					fieldsWithNames := l.decoder.DecodeFieldsWithNames(l.valueBuffer[min])
-					if !matchesWhere(l.filters[min], fieldsWithNames) {
+					fieldsWithNames, err := l.decoder.DecodeFieldsWithNames(l.valueBuffer[min])
+					if err != nil || !matchesWhere(l.filters[min], fieldsWithNames) {
 						value = nil
 					}
 				}
@@ -462,5 +463,5 @@ func splitIdent(s string) (db, rp, m string, err error) {
 type fieldDecoder interface {
 	DecodeByID(fieldID uint8, b []byte) (interface{}, error)
 	FieldByName(name string) *Field
-	DecodeFieldsWithNames(b []byte) map[string]interface{}
+	DecodeFieldsWithNames(b []byte) (map[string]interface{}, error)
 }