diff --git a/cmd/grpcurl/grpcurl.go b/cmd/grpcurl/grpcurl.go
index aa83037..ba80f91 100644
--- a/cmd/grpcurl/grpcurl.go
+++ b/cmd/grpcurl/grpcurl.go
@@ -600,6 +600,7 @@ func main() {
 		refCtx := metadata.NewOutgoingContext(ctx, md)
 		cc = dial()
 		refClient = grpcreflect.NewClientAuto(refCtx, cc)
+		refClient.AllowMissingFileDescriptors()
 		reflSource := grpcurl.DescriptorSourceFromServer(ctx, refClient)
 		if fileSource != nil {
 			descSource = compositeSource{reflSource, fileSource}