diff --git a/src/bash_functions.sh b/src/bash_functions.sh
index 6120c1be7..351d268f8 100644
--- a/src/bash_functions.sh
+++ b/src/bash_functions.sh
@@ -234,6 +234,13 @@ fix_capabilities() {
     capsh --has-p=cap_sys_nice 2>/dev/null && CAP_STR+=',CAP_SYS_NICE'
     capsh --has-p=cap_sys_time 2>/dev/null && CAP_STR+=',CAP_SYS_TIME'
 
+    if [[ $DHCP_READY == false ]] && [[ $FTLCONF_dhcp_active == true ]]; then
+        # DHCP is requested but NET_ADMIN is not available.
+        echo "ERROR: DHCP requested but NET_ADMIN is not available. DHCP will not be started."
+        echo "      Please add cap_net_admin to the container's capabilities or disable DHCP."
+        setFTLConfigValue dhcp.active false
+    fi
+
     if [[ ${CAP_STR} ]]; then
         # We have the (some of) the above caps available to us - apply them to pihole-FTL
         echo "  [i] Applying the following caps to pihole-FTL:"
@@ -244,22 +251,18 @@ fix_capabilities() {
 
         setcap "${CAP_STR:1}"+ep "$(which pihole-FTL)" || ret=$?
 
-        if [[ $DHCP_READY == false ]] && [[ $FTLCONF_dhcp_active == true ]]; then
-            # DHCP is requested but NET_ADMIN is not available.
-            echo "ERROR: DHCP requested but NET_ADMIN is not available. DHCP will not be started."
-            echo "      Please add cap_net_admin to the container's capabilities or disable DHCP."
-            setFTLConfigValue dhcp.active false
-        fi
-
-        if [[ $ret -ne 0 && "${DNSMASQ_USER:-pihole}" != "root" ]]; then
-            echo "  [!] ERROR: Unable to set capabilities for pihole-FTL. Cannot run as non-root."
-            echo "            If you are seeing this error, please set the environment variable 'DNSMASQ_USER' to the value 'root'"
+        if [[ $ret -ne 0 ]]; then
+            echo "  [!] ERROR: Unable to set capabilities for pihole-FTL. "
+            if [[ "${DNSMASQ_USER:-pihole}" != "root" ]]; then
+                echo "            Cannot run as non-root."
+                echo "            If you are seeing this error, please set the environment variable 'DNSMASQ_USER' to the value 'root'"
+            fi
             exit 1
         fi
     else
-        echo "  [!] ERROR: Unable to set capabilities for pihole-FTL."
+        echo "  [!] WARNING: No capabilities for pihole-FTL available."
+        echo "           Pi-hole functions may not work as expected."
         echo "            Please ensure that the container has the required capabilities."
-        exit 1
     fi
     echo ""
 }