diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/export.c b/fs/overlayfs/export.c
index f469982dcb36..44118f0ab0b3 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/export.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/export.c
@@ -257,7 +257,7 @@ static int ovl_encode_fh(struct inode *inode, u32 *fid, int *max_len,
 		return FILEID_INVALID;
 
 	dentry = d_find_any_alias(inode);
-	if (WARN_ON(!dentry))
+	if (!dentry)
 		return FILEID_INVALID;
 
 	bytes = ovl_dentry_to_fid(dentry, fid, buflen);