diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/dir.c b/fs/overlayfs/dir.c
index ed95272d57a61a..795ab65ccdf5e0 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/dir.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/dir.c
@@ -618,7 +618,8 @@ static int ovl_remove_upper(struct dentry *dentry, bool is_dir)
 	 * sole user of this dentry.  Too tricky...  Just unhash for
 	 * now.
 	 */
-	d_drop(dentry);
+	if (!err)
+		d_drop(dentry);
 	inode_unlock(dir);
 
 	return err;