diff --git a/cpp/src/umap/fuzzy_simpl_set/naive.cuh b/cpp/src/umap/fuzzy_simpl_set/naive.cuh
index 29f632692d..1939387308 100644
--- a/cpp/src/umap/fuzzy_simpl_set/naive.cuh
+++ b/cpp/src/umap/fuzzy_simpl_set/naive.cuh
@@ -80,7 +80,8 @@ static const float MIN_K_DIST_SCALE   = 1e-3;
  *
  */
 template <typename value_t, typename nnz_t, int TPB_X>
-CUML_KERNEL void smooth_knn_dist_kernel(const value_t* knn_dists,
+CUML_KERNEL void smooth_knn_dist_kernel(bool* error_status,
+                                        const value_t* knn_dists,
                                         int n,
                                         float mean_dist,
                                         value_t* sigmas,
@@ -120,6 +121,11 @@ CUML_KERNEL void smooth_knn_dist_kernel(const value_t* knn_dists,
       if (cur_dist > max_nonzero) max_nonzero = cur_dist;
     }
 
+    if (start_nonzero == -1) {
+      *error_status = true;
+      return;
+    }
+
     float ith_distances_mean = sum / float(n_neighbors);
     if (total_nonzero >= local_connectivity) {
       int index           = int(floor(local_connectivity));
@@ -265,9 +271,18 @@ void smooth_knn_dist(nnz_t n,
   /**
    * Smooth kNN distances to be continuous
    */
+
+  bool has_found_an_error = false;
+  rmm::device_scalar<bool> error_status(stream);
+  error_status.set_value_async(has_found_an_error, stream);
+
   smooth_knn_dist_kernel<value_t, nnz_t, TPB_X><<<grid, blk, 0, stream>>>(
-    knn_dists, n, mean_dist, sigmas, rhos, n_neighbors, local_connectivity);
-  RAFT_CUDA_TRY(cudaPeekAtLastError());
+    error_status.data(), knn_dists, n, mean_dist, sigmas, rhos, n_neighbors, local_connectivity);
+  RAFT_CUDA_TRY(cudaStreamSynchronize(stream));
+
+  has_found_an_error = error_status.value(stream);
+  RAFT_EXPECTS(!has_found_an_error,
+               "At least one row does not have any neighbor with non-zero distance.");
 }
 
 template <typename value_t, typename value_idx, typename nnz_t, int TPB_X>
diff --git a/python/cuml/cuml/tests/test_umap.py b/python/cuml/cuml/tests/test_umap.py
index 96d6bbf532..c68d981d16 100644
--- a/python/cuml/cuml/tests/test_umap.py
+++ b/python/cuml/cuml/tests/test_umap.py
@@ -783,8 +783,13 @@ def test_umap_distance_metrics_fit_transform_trust(
 def test_umap_distance_metrics_fit_transform_trust_on_sparse_input(
     metric, supported, umap_learn_supported
 ):
+    if metric == "jaccard":
+        n_features = 1000
+    else:
+        n_features = 64
+
     data, labels = make_blobs(
-        n_samples=1000, n_features=64, centers=5, random_state=42
+        n_samples=1000, n_features=n_features, centers=5, random_state=42
     )
 
     data_selection = np.random.RandomState(42).choice(