diff --git a/drivers/media/cec/cec-adap.c b/drivers/media/cec/cec-adap.c
index 8030485ecfd7..0d7d687aeea0 100644
--- a/drivers/media/cec/cec-adap.c
+++ b/drivers/media/cec/cec-adap.c
@@ -330,7 +330,8 @@ static void cec_data_cancel(struct cec_data *data)
 	} else {
 		list_del_init(&data->list);
 		if (!(data->msg.tx_status & CEC_TX_STATUS_OK))
-			data->adap->transmit_queue_sz--;
+			if (!WARN_ON(!data->adap->transmit_queue_sz))
+				data->adap->transmit_queue_sz--;
 	}
 
 	/* Mark it as an error */
@@ -377,6 +378,14 @@ static void cec_flush(struct cec_adapter *adap)
 		 * need to do anything special in that case.
 		 */
 	}
+	/*
+	 * If something went wrong and this counter isn't what it should
+	 * be, then this will reset it back to 0. Warn if it is not 0,
+	 * since it indicates a bug, either in this framework or in a
+	 * CEC driver.
+	 */
+	if (WARN_ON(adap->transmit_queue_sz))
+		adap->transmit_queue_sz = 0;
 }
 
 /*
@@ -465,7 +474,8 @@ int cec_thread_func(void *_adap)
 		data = list_first_entry(&adap->transmit_queue,
 					struct cec_data, list);
 		list_del_init(&data->list);
-		adap->transmit_queue_sz--;
+		if (!WARN_ON(!data->adap->transmit_queue_sz))
+			adap->transmit_queue_sz--;
 
 		/* Make this the current transmitting message */
 		adap->transmitting = data;