diff --git a/builder/amazon/common/access_config.go b/builder/amazon/common/access_config.go
index c778cc452..d7a8ec9dc 100644
--- a/builder/amazon/common/access_config.go
+++ b/builder/amazon/common/access_config.go
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/session"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/service/ec2"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/service/ec2/ec2iface"
-	cleanhttp "github.com/hashicorp/go-cleanhttp"
+	"github.com/hashicorp/go-cleanhttp"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/packer/template/interpolate"
 )
 
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ func (c *AccessConfig) Session() (*session.Session, error) {
 
 	// default is 3, and when it was causing failures for users being throttled
 	// retries are exponentially backed off.
-	config = config.WithMaxRetries(20)
+	config = config.WithMaxRetries(8)
 
 	region, err := c.region()
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/builder/amazon/common/access_config_test.go b/builder/amazon/common/access_config_test.go
index cb26750e2..489bf08df 100644
--- a/builder/amazon/common/access_config_test.go
+++ b/builder/amazon/common/access_config_test.go
@@ -68,14 +68,3 @@ func TestAccessConfigPrepare_RegionRestricted(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal("We should be in gov region.")
 	}
 }
-
-func TestAccessConfig_NoCredentialsFailsQuickly(t *testing.T) {
-	c := &AccessConfig{
-		RawRegion: "not-empty",
-	}
-	_, err := c.Session()
-	if err == nil {
-		t.Errorf("AccessConfig.Session() error is nil")
-		return
-	}
-}