diff --git a/src/polypcore/core-scache.c b/src/polypcore/core-scache.c
index 2e8d453cd..82c61a1d2 100644
--- a/src/polypcore/core-scache.c
+++ b/src/polypcore/core-scache.c
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ int pa_scache_add_item(pa_core *c, const char *name, const pa_sample_spec *ss, c
     pa_scache_entry *e;
     assert(c && name);
 
-    if (chunk->length > PA_SCACHE_ENTRY_SIZE_MAX)
+    if (chunk && chunk->length > PA_SCACHE_ENTRY_SIZE_MAX)
         return -1;
 
     if (!(e = scache_add_item(c, name)))