diff --git a/repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/install-miniconda.bash b/repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/install-miniconda.bash
index 0449a124..54065715 100755
--- a/repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/install-miniconda.bash
+++ b/repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/install-miniconda.bash
@@ -54,8 +54,9 @@ conda env create -p ${NB_PYTHON_PREFIX} -f /tmp/environment.yml
 # after the server connection has been lost
 # This will install and enable the extension for jupyter notebook
 ${NB_PYTHON_PREFIX}/bin/python -m pip install https://github.com/manics/jupyter-offlinenotebook/archive/7ba3520.zip
-# and this installs it for lab
-${NB_PYTHON_PREFIX}/bin/jupyter labextension install jupyter-offlinenotebook
+# and this installs it for lab. Keep going if the lab version is incompatible
+# with the extension
+${NB_PYTHON_PREFIX}/bin/jupyter labextension install jupyter-offlinenotebook || true
 
 # empty conda history file,
 # which seems to result in some effective pinning of packages in the initial env,