diff --git a/source/libsmb/libsmbclient.c b/source/libsmb/libsmbclient.c
index 6b4ae9f4b70..15355016d0a 100644
--- a/source/libsmb/libsmbclient.c
+++ b/source/libsmb/libsmbclient.c
@@ -1200,7 +1200,7 @@ smbc_read_ctx(SMBCCTX *context,
          * the call to cli_read() instead of file->offset fixes a problem
          * retrieving data at an offset greater than 4GB.
          */
-        off_t offset = file->offset;
+        off_t offset;
 
 	if (!context || !context->internal ||
 	    !context->internal->_initialized) {
@@ -1219,6 +1219,8 @@ smbc_read_ctx(SMBCCTX *context,
 
 	}
 
+	offset = file->offset;
+
 	/* Check that the buffer exists ... */
 
 	if (buf == NULL) {