diff --git a/examples/README.md b/examples/README.md
index f9dc841c..3fa1b018 100644
--- a/examples/README.md
+++ b/examples/README.md
@@ -388,8 +388,8 @@ Configure each registry sync:
 				"pollInterval": "6h",               # polling interval, if not set then periodically polling will not run
 				"tlsVerify": true,                  # whether or not to verify tls (default is true)
 				"certDir": "/home/user/certs",      # use certificates at certDir path, if not specified then use the default certs dir
-				"maxRetries": 5,                    # mandatory option! maxRetries in case of temporary errors
-				"retryDelay": "10m",                # mandatory option! delay between retries, retry options are applied for both on demand and periodically sync.
+				"maxRetries": 5,                    # maxRetries in case of temporary errors (default: no retries)
+				"retryDelay": "10m",                # delay between retries, retry options are applied for both on demand and periodically sync and retryDelay is mandatory when using maxRetries.
 				"content":[                         # which content to periodically pull, also it's used for filtering ondemand images, if not set then periodically polling will not run
 					{
 						"prefix":"/repo1/repo",         # pull image repo1/repo
@@ -411,8 +411,6 @@ Configure each registry sync:
 				"pollInterval": "12h",
 				"tlsVerify": false,
 				"onDemand": false,
-				"maxRetries": 5,
-				"retryDelay": "10m",
 				"content":[
 					{
 						"prefix":"/repo2",
@@ -426,11 +424,11 @@ Configure each registry sync:
 				"urls": ["https://docker.io/library"],
 				"onDemand": true,                     # doesn't have content, don't periodically pull, pull just on demand.
 				"tlsVerify": true,
-				"maxRetries": 3,
+				"maxRetries": 3,                      
 				"retryDelay": "15m"
 			}
 		]
 		}
 ```
 
-Prefixes can be strings that exactly match repositories or they can be glob patterns.
+Prefixes can be strings that exactly match repositories or they can be [glob](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glob_(programming)) patterns.
diff --git a/examples/config-sync.json b/examples/config-sync.json
index 9cd847ce..62aaa3cd 100644
--- a/examples/config-sync.json
+++ b/examples/config-sync.json
@@ -40,8 +40,6 @@
 				"pollInterval": "12h",
 				"tlsVerify": false,
 				"onDemand": false,
-				"maxRetries": 5,
-				"retryDelay": "10m",
 				"content":[
 					{
 						"prefix":"/repo2",
diff --git a/pkg/cli/root.go b/pkg/cli/root.go
index 725dad5c..4bb72b31 100644
--- a/pkg/cli/root.go
+++ b/pkg/cli/root.go
@@ -246,11 +246,11 @@ func validateConfiguration(config *config.Config) {
 
 	// check glob patterns in sync config are compilable
 	if config.Extensions != nil && config.Extensions.Sync != nil {
-		for _, regCfg := range config.Extensions.Sync.Registries {
+		for id, regCfg := range config.Extensions.Sync.Registries {
 			// check retry options are configured for sync
-			if regCfg.MaxRetries == nil || regCfg.RetryDelay == nil {
-				log.Error().Err(errors.ErrBadConfig).Msg("extensions.sync.registries[].MaxRetries" +
-					"and extensions.sync.registries[].RetryDelay fields are mandatory")
+			if regCfg.MaxRetries != nil && regCfg.RetryDelay == nil {
+				log.Error().Err(errors.ErrBadConfig).Msgf("extensions.sync.registries[%d].retryDelay"+
+					" is required when using extensions.sync.registries[%d].maxRetries", id, id)
 				panic(errors.ErrBadConfig)
 			}
 
diff --git a/pkg/cli/root_test.go b/pkg/cli/root_test.go
index a8f93e85..084b99d5 100644
--- a/pkg/cli/root_test.go
+++ b/pkg/cli/root_test.go
@@ -267,7 +267,7 @@ func TestVerify(t *testing.T) {
 							"http":{"address":"127.0.0.1","port":"8080","realm":"zot",
 							"auth":{"htpasswd":{"path":"test/data/htpasswd"},"failDelay":1}},
 							"extensions":{"sync": {"registries": [{"urls":["localhost:9999"],
-							"content": [{"prefix":"repo**"}]}]}}}`)
+							"maxRetries": 10, "content": [{"prefix":"repo**"}]}]}}}`)
 		_, err = tmpfile.Write(content)
 		So(err, ShouldBeNil)
 		err = tmpfile.Close()