diff --git a/solr/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/solr/SolrTestCaseJ4.java b/solr/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/solr/SolrTestCaseJ4.java
index cc2f4760ab2..ac81050ac94 100644
--- a/solr/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/solr/SolrTestCaseJ4.java
+++ b/solr/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/solr/SolrTestCaseJ4.java
@@ -1013,6 +1013,7 @@ public abstract class SolrTestCaseJ4 extends LuceneTestCase {
   }
 
   public static boolean recurseDelete(File f) {
+    if(f == null || !f.exists()) return false;
     if (f.isDirectory()) {
       for (File sub : f.listFiles()) {
         if (!recurseDelete(sub)) {