diff --git a/drivers/md/dm-thin-metadata.c b/drivers/md/dm-thin-metadata.c
index c88ed14d49e6..0ada99572b68 100644
--- a/drivers/md/dm-thin-metadata.c
+++ b/drivers/md/dm-thin-metadata.c
@@ -2073,10 +2073,13 @@ int dm_pool_register_metadata_threshold(struct dm_pool_metadata *pmd,
 					dm_sm_threshold_fn fn,
 					void *context)
 {
-	int r;
+	int r = -EINVAL;
 
 	pmd_write_lock_in_core(pmd);
-	r = dm_sm_register_threshold_callback(pmd->metadata_sm, threshold, fn, context);
+	if (!pmd->fail_io) {
+		r = dm_sm_register_threshold_callback(pmd->metadata_sm,
+						      threshold, fn, context);
+	}
 	pmd_write_unlock(pmd);
 
 	return r;
diff --git a/drivers/md/dm-thin.c b/drivers/md/dm-thin.c
index 4c67b77c23c1..0a85e4cd607c 100644
--- a/drivers/md/dm-thin.c
+++ b/drivers/md/dm-thin.c
@@ -3401,8 +3401,10 @@ static int pool_ctr(struct dm_target *ti, unsigned argc, char **argv)
 						calc_metadata_threshold(pt),
 						metadata_low_callback,
 						pool);
-	if (r)
+	if (r) {
+		ti->error = "Error registering metadata threshold";
 		goto out_flags_changed;
+	}
 
 	dm_pool_register_pre_commit_callback(pool->pmd,
 					     metadata_pre_commit_callback, pool);