diff --git a/CHANGES/+fixed-error-reporting-and-json-metadata-handling.bugfix b/CHANGES/+fixed-error-reporting-and-json-metadata-handling.bugfix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..66427dbed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CHANGES/+fixed-error-reporting-and-json-metadata-handling.bugfix
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fixed python syncs masking HTTP errors as stale metadata and handling native json list values in package metadata
diff --git a/pulp_python/app/tasks/sync.py b/pulp_python/app/tasks/sync.py
index dd5e38265..971338f62 100644
--- a/pulp_python/app/tasks/sync.py
+++ b/pulp_python/app/tasks/sync.py
@@ -130,6 +130,7 @@ async def run(self):
                 auth=downloader.auth,
                 proxy=downloader.proxy,
                 proxy_auth=downloader.proxy_auth,
+                raise_for_status=True,
             )
 
             deferred_download = self.remote.policy != Remote.IMMEDIATE
diff --git a/pulp_python/app/utils.py b/pulp_python/app/utils.py
index 9e08c77c6..2d0d56b0a 100644
--- a/pulp_python/app/utils.py
+++ b/pulp_python/app/utils.py
@@ -441,7 +441,7 @@ def json_to_dict(data):
         dictionary: of JSON string
 
     """
-    if isinstance(data, dict):
+    if isinstance(data, (dict, list)):
         return data
 
     return json.loads(data)