diff --git a/libavformat/avio.c b/libavformat/avio.c
index 23642db90a..177e91d735 100644
--- a/libavformat/avio.c
+++ b/libavformat/avio.c
@@ -133,6 +133,7 @@ offset_t url_seek(URLContext *h, offset_t pos, int whence)
 int url_close(URLContext *h)
 {
     int ret;
+    if (!h) return 0; /* can happen when url_open fails */
 
     ret = h->prot->url_close(h);
     av_free(h);