diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/wal/HLogSplitter.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/wal/HLogSplitter.java
index 2f5d23d3fd1..5ff65759a03 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/wal/HLogSplitter.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/wal/HLogSplitter.java
@@ -1478,7 +1478,7 @@ public class HLogSplitter {
         }
 
         // skip the edit
-        if (needSkip) continue;
+        if (loc == null || needSkip) continue;
 
         if (!skippedKVs.isEmpty()) {
           kvs.removeAll(skippedKVs);