diff --git a/interfaces/adfsuite/ams.py b/interfaces/adfsuite/ams.py
index a67acd4e..5a6592e3 100644
--- a/interfaces/adfsuite/ams.py
+++ b/interfaces/adfsuite/ams.py
@@ -2483,27 +2483,49 @@ def get_errormsg(self) -> Optional[str]:
         if self.check():
             return None
         else:
-            # Something went wrong. The first place to check is the termination status on the ams.rkf.
-            # If the AMS driver stopped with a known error (called StopIt in the Fortran code), the error will be in there.
+            default_msg = "Could not determine error message. Please check the output manually."
+            msg = None
             try:
-                msg = self.results.readrkf("General", "termination status")
-                if msg == "NORMAL TERMINATION with errors" or msg is None:
-                    # Apparently this wasn't a hard stop in the middle of the job.
+                # Something went wrong. The first place to check is the termination status on the ams.rkf.
+                # If the AMS driver stopped with a known error (called StopIt in the Fortran code), the error will be in there.
+                # If there is no rkf file, the msg will be None
+                termination_status = self.results.readrkf("General", "termination status")
+                if termination_status == "NORMAL TERMINATION with errors" or termination_status is None:
+                    # Apparently this wasn't a hard stop in the middle of the job
                     # Let's look for the last error in the logfile ...
-                    msg = self.results.grep_file("ams.log", "ERROR: ")[-1].partition("ERROR: ")[2]
-                elif msg == "IN PROGRESS" and "$JN.err" in self.results:
+                    try:
+                        log_err_lines = self.results.grep_file("ams.log", "ERROR: ")
+                        if log_err_lines:
+                            return log_err_lines[-1].partition("ERROR: ")[2]
+                    except FileError:
+                        pass
+
+                    # For a licensing issue, check the output logs directly
+                    try:
+                        license_err_lines = self.results.get_output_chunk(
+                            begin="LICENSE INVALID",
+                            end="License file",
+                            inc_begin=True,
+                            inc_end=True,
+                            match=1,
+                        )
+                        if license_err_lines:
+                            return str.join("\n", license_err_lines)
+                    except FileError:
+                        pass
+                elif termination_status == "IN PROGRESS" and "$JN.err" in self.results:
                     # If the status is still "IN PROGRESS", that probably means AMS was shut down hard from the outside.
                     # E.g. it got SIGKILL from the scheduler for exceeding some resource limit.
                     # In this case useful information may be found on stderr.
-                    with open(self.results["$JN.err"], "r") as err:
+                    with open(self.results["$JN.err"]) as err:
                         errlines = err.read().splitlines()
                     for el in reversed(errlines):
                         if el != "" and not el.isspace():
                             msg = "Killed while IN PROGRESS: " + el
                             break
             except:
-                msg = "Could not determine error message. Please check the output manually."
-            return msg
+                pass
+            return msg if msg else default_msg
 
     def hash_input(self) -> str:
         """Calculate the hash of the input file.
diff --git a/unit_tests/test_amsjob.py b/unit_tests/test_amsjob.py
index 60dd079e..769b4a28 100644
--- a/unit_tests/test_amsjob.py
+++ b/unit_tests/test_amsjob.py
@@ -563,3 +563,50 @@ def get_runscript() -> str:
                 assert len(status_lines) == 4
 
                 logger.close()
+
+    def test_get_errormsg_populates_correctly_for_different_scenarios(self):
+        from scm.plams.core.errors import FileError
+
+        # Invalid license
+        job = AMSJob()
+        results = MagicMock(spec=AMSResults)
+        results.readrkf.return_value = None
+        results.grep_file.side_effect = FileError()
+        results.get_output_chunk.return_value = [
+            "LICENSE INVALID",
+            "---------------",
+            "Your license does not include module AMS version 2024.206 on this machine.",
+            "Module AMS",
+            "Version 2024.206",
+            "Machine: Foo",
+            "License file: ./license.txt",
+        ]
+        job.results = results
+
+        assert (
+            job.get_errormsg()
+            == """LICENSE INVALID
+---------------
+Your license does not include module AMS version 2024.206 on this machine.
+Module AMS
+Version 2024.206
+Machine: Foo
+License file: ./license.txt"""
+        )
+
+        # Invalid input
+        results.grep_file.side_effect = None
+        results.grep_file.return_value = [
+            '<Dec05-2024> <12:03:49>  ERROR: Input error: value "foo" found in line 13 for multiple choice key "Task" is not an allowed choice'
+        ]
+        assert (
+            job.get_errormsg()
+            == 'Input error: value "foo" found in line 13 for multiple choice key "Task" is not an allowed choice'
+        )
+
+        # Error in calculation
+        results.readrkf.return_value = "NORMAL TERMINATION with errors"
+        results.grep_file.return_value = [
+            "<Dec05-2024> <13:44:55>  ERROR: Geometry optimization failed! (Did not converge.)"
+        ]
+        assert job.get_errormsg() == "Geometry optimization failed! (Did not converge.)"