diff --git a/HISTORY.md b/HISTORY.md
index 52a73d40..1a6178ec 100644
--- a/HISTORY.md
+++ b/HISTORY.md
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
 # cloudpathlib Changelog
 
+## Unreleased
+- Fix `S3Client` cleanup via `Client.__del__` when `S3Client` encounters an exception during initialization. (Issue [#372](https://github.com/drivendataorg/cloudpathlib/issues/372), PR [#373](https://github.com/drivendataorg/cloudpathlib/pull/373))
+
 ## v0.16.0 (2023-10-09)
  - Add "CloudPath" as return type on `__init__` for mypy issues. ([Issue #179](https://github.com/drivendataorg/cloudpathlib/issues/179), [PR #342](https://github.com/drivendataorg/cloudpathlib/pull/342))
- - Add `with_stem` to all path types when python version supports it (>=3.9). ([Issue #287](https://github.com/drivendataorg/cloudpathlib/issues/287), [PR #290](https://github.com/drivendataorg/cloudpathlib/pull/290), thanks to [@Gilthans](https://github.com/Gilthans)) 
+ - Add `with_stem` to all path types when python version supports it (>=3.9). ([Issue #287](https://github.com/drivendataorg/cloudpathlib/issues/287), [PR #290](https://github.com/drivendataorg/cloudpathlib/pull/290), thanks to [@Gilthans](https://github.com/Gilthans))
  - Add `newline` parameter to the `write_text` method to align to `pathlib` functionality as of Python 3.10. [PR #362](https://github.com/drivendataorg/cloudpathlib/pull/362), thanks to [@pricemg](https://github.com/pricemg).
  - Add support for Python 3.12 ([PR #364](https://github.com/drivendataorg/cloudpathlib/pull/364))
  - Add `CLOUDPATHLIB_LOCAL_CACHE_DIR` env var for setting local_cache_dir default for clients ([Issue #352](https://github.com/drivendataorg/cloudpathlib/issues/352), [PR #357](https://github.com/drivendataorg/cloudpathlib/pull/357))
diff --git a/cloudpathlib/client.py b/cloudpathlib/client.py
index 71ec1b23..831fcd4b 100644
--- a/cloudpathlib/client.py
+++ b/cloudpathlib/client.py
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ def __init__(
     def __del__(self) -> None:
         # remove containing dir, even if a more aggressive strategy
         # removed the actual files
-        if self.file_cache_mode in [
+        if getattr(self, "file_cache_mode", None) in [
             FileCacheMode.tmp_dir,
             FileCacheMode.close_file,
             FileCacheMode.cloudpath_object,