diff --git a/fs/ext4/inode.c b/fs/ext4/inode.c
index 49484ba801c9..b4386dafeb0c 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/inode.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/inode.c
@@ -3622,7 +3622,7 @@ static void ext4_free_data(handle_t *handle, struct inode *inode,
 		 * block pointed to itself, it would have been detached when
 		 * the block was cleared. Check for this instead of OOPSing.
 		 */
-		if (bh2jh(this_bh))
+		if ((EXT4_JOURNAL(inode) == NULL) || bh2jh(this_bh))
 			ext4_handle_dirty_metadata(handle, inode, this_bh);
 		else
 			ext4_error(inode->i_sb, __func__,