diff --git a/apex/apex.go b/apex/apex.go
index a87187a..2a5b4cb 100644
--- a/apex/apex.go
+++ b/apex/apex.go
@@ -1985,6 +1985,9 @@
 	// TODO(jiyong) do this using walkPayloadDeps
 	ctx.WalkDepsBlueprint(func(child, parent blueprint.Module) bool {
 		depTag := ctx.OtherModuleDependencyTag(child)
+		if _, ok := depTag.(android.ExcludeFromApexContentsTag); ok {
+			return false
+		}
 		depName := ctx.OtherModuleName(child)
 		if _, isDirectDep := parent.(*apexBundle); isDirectDep {
 			switch depTag {
@@ -2146,7 +2149,7 @@
 						filesInfo = append(filesInfo, apexFileForPrebuiltEtc(ctx, prebuilt, depName))
 					}
 				} else if am.CanHaveApexVariants() && am.IsInstallableToApex() {
-					ctx.ModuleErrorf("unexpected tag %q for indirect dependency %q", depTag, depName)
+					ctx.ModuleErrorf("unexpected tag %s for indirect dependency %q", PrettyPrintTag(depTag), depName)
 				}
 			}
 		}