diff --git a/.changeset/curvy-pugs-type.md b/.changeset/curvy-pugs-type.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7e94a5b35f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/curvy-pugs-type.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@backstage/plugin-catalog-backend': patch
+---
+
+GithubDiscoveryProcessor outputs locations as optional to avoid outputting errors for missing locations (see https://github.com/backstage/backstage/issues/4730).
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/processors/GithubDiscoveryProcessor.test.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/processors/GithubDiscoveryProcessor.test.ts
index 41698e1d04..9c9aa41740 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/processors/GithubDiscoveryProcessor.test.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/processors/GithubDiscoveryProcessor.test.ts
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ describe('GithubDiscoveryProcessor', () => {
           target:
             'https://github.com/backstage/backstage/blob/master/catalog.yaml',
         },
-        optional: false,
+        optional: true,
       });
       expect(emitter).toHaveBeenCalledWith({
         type: 'location',
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ describe('GithubDiscoveryProcessor', () => {
           type: 'url',
           target: 'https://github.com/backstage/demo/blob/master/catalog.yaml',
         },
-        optional: false,
+        optional: true,
       });
     });
 
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ describe('GithubDiscoveryProcessor', () => {
           target:
             'https://github.com/backstage/techdocs-cli/blob/master/catalog.yaml',
         },
-        optional: false,
+        optional: true,
       });
       expect(emitter).toHaveBeenCalledWith({
         type: 'location',
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ describe('GithubDiscoveryProcessor', () => {
           target:
             'https://github.com/backstage/techdocs-container/blob/master/catalog.yaml',
         },
-        optional: false,
+        optional: true,
       });
     });
     it('filter unrelated repositories', async () => {
@@ -215,7 +215,7 @@ describe('GithubDiscoveryProcessor', () => {
           type: 'url',
           target: 'https://github.com/backstage/test/blob/master/catalog.yaml',
         },
-        optional: false,
+        optional: true,
       });
     });
   });
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/processors/GithubDiscoveryProcessor.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/processors/GithubDiscoveryProcessor.ts
index 9af247fd25..34f7fa2782 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/processors/GithubDiscoveryProcessor.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/processors/GithubDiscoveryProcessor.ts
@@ -94,7 +94,10 @@ export class GithubDiscoveryProcessor implements CatalogProcessor {
             type: 'url',
             target: `${repository.url}${catalogPath}`,
           },
-          false,
+          // Not all locations may actually exist, since the user defined them as a wildcard pattern.
+          // Thus, we emit them as optional and let the downstream processor find them while not outputting
+          // an error if it couldn't.
+          true,
         ),
       );
     }