diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/HBaseInterClusterReplicationEndpoint.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/HBaseInterClusterReplicationEndpoint.java
index 685e95c7b2c..0dfad0c705e 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/HBaseInterClusterReplicationEndpoint.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/HBaseInterClusterReplicationEndpoint.java
@@ -162,6 +162,9 @@ public class HBaseInterClusterReplicationEndpoint extends HBaseReplicationEndpoi
       peersSelected = true;
     }
 
+    if (replicationSinkMgr.getSinks().size() == 0) {
+      return false;
+    }
     // minimum of: configured threads, number of 100-waledit batches,
     //  and number of current sinks
     int n = Math.min(Math.min(this.maxThreads, entries.size()/100+1),