diff --git a/src/main/kotlin/org/opensearch/replication/action/index/TransportReplicateIndexAction.kt b/src/main/kotlin/org/opensearch/replication/action/index/TransportReplicateIndexAction.kt
index 3000cb9bf..563a99962 100644
--- a/src/main/kotlin/org/opensearch/replication/action/index/TransportReplicateIndexAction.kt
+++ b/src/main/kotlin/org/opensearch/replication/action/index/TransportReplicateIndexAction.kt
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ class TransportReplicateIndexAction @Inject constructor(transportService: Transp
 
     private suspend fun getLeaderIndexSettings(leaderAlias: String, leaderIndex: String): Settings {
         val remoteClient = client.getRemoteClusterClient(leaderAlias)
-        val getSettingsRequest = GetSettingsRequest().includeDefaults(false).indices(leaderIndex)
+        val getSettingsRequest = GetSettingsRequest().includeDefaults(true).indices(leaderIndex)
         val settingsResponse = remoteClient.suspending(remoteClient.admin().indices()::getSettings,
                 injectSecurityContext = true)(getSettingsRequest)
         return settingsResponse.indexToSettings.get(leaderIndex) ?: throw IndexNotFoundException("${leaderAlias}:${leaderIndex}")
diff --git a/src/test/kotlin/org/opensearch/replication/integ/rest/StartReplicationIT.kt b/src/test/kotlin/org/opensearch/replication/integ/rest/StartReplicationIT.kt
index 18678016d..246641eb5 100644
--- a/src/test/kotlin/org/opensearch/replication/integ/rest/StartReplicationIT.kt
+++ b/src/test/kotlin/org/opensearch/replication/integ/rest/StartReplicationIT.kt
@@ -1181,11 +1181,12 @@ class StartReplicationIT: MultiClusterRestTestCase() {
             .put("index.data_path", "/random-path/invalid-setting")
             .build()
 
-        assertThatThrownBy {
+        try {
             followerClient.startReplication(StartReplicationRequest("source", leaderIndexName, followerIndexName, settings = settings))
-        }.isInstanceOf(ResponseException::class.java).hasMessageContaining(
-            "Validation Failed: 1: custom path [/random-path/invalid-setting] is not a sub-path of path.shared_data"
-        )
+        } catch (e: ResponseException) {
+            Assert.assertEquals(400, e.response.statusLine.statusCode)
+            Assert.assertTrue(e.message!!.contains("Validation Failed: 1: custom path [/random-path/invalid-setting] is not a sub-path of path.shared_data"))
+        }
     }
 
     fun `test that replication is not started when all primary shards are not in active state`() {