diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index 9e6cadcd2e5..cffbed41fe7 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -299,6 +299,9 @@ Trunk (Unreleased)
     HDFS-4340. Update addBlock() to inculde inode id as additional argument.
     (Brandon Li via suresh)
 
+    HDFS-4502. JsonUtil.toFileStatus(..) should check if the fileId property
+    exists.  (Brandon Li via suresh)
+
 Release 2.0.4-beta - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/web/JsonUtil.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/web/JsonUtil.java
index e04fb694bdb..5d1d33f9102 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/web/JsonUtil.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/web/JsonUtil.java
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.LocatedBlock;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.protocol.LocatedBlocks;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.security.token.block.BlockTokenIdentifier;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.security.token.delegation.DelegationTokenIdentifier;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.INodeId;
 import org.apache.hadoop.ipc.RemoteException;
 import org.apache.hadoop.security.token.Token;
 import org.apache.hadoop.security.token.TokenIdentifier;
@@ -244,7 +245,8 @@ public class JsonUtil {
     final long mTime = (Long) m.get("modificationTime");
     final long blockSize = (Long) m.get("blockSize");
     final short replication = (short) (long) (Long) m.get("replication");
-    final long fileId = (Long) m.get("fileId");
+    final long fileId = m.containsKey("fileId") ? (Long) m.get("fileId")
+        : INodeId.GRANDFATHER_INODE_ID;
     return new HdfsFileStatus(len, type == PathType.DIRECTORY, replication,
         blockSize, mTime, aTime, permission, owner, group,
         symlink, DFSUtil.string2Bytes(localName), fileId);