diff --git a/fs/tracefs/inode.c b/fs/tracefs/inode.c
index 62524b20964e..51eacb5f4e08 100644
--- a/fs/tracefs/inode.c
+++ b/fs/tracefs/inode.c
@@ -220,9 +220,11 @@ static void set_gid(struct dentry *parent, kgid_t gid)
 		change_gid(dentry, gid);
 
 		/* If this is the events directory, update that too */
-		ti = get_tracefs(dentry->d_inode);
-		if (ti && (ti->flags & TRACEFS_EVENT_INODE))
-			eventfs_update_gid(dentry, gid);
+		if (!IS_ERR_OR_NULL(dentry->d_inode)) {
+			ti = get_tracefs(dentry->d_inode);
+			if (ti && (ti->flags & TRACEFS_EVENT_INODE))
+				eventfs_update_gid(dentry, gid);
+		}
 
 		if (!list_empty(&dentry->d_subdirs)) {
 			spin_unlock(&this_parent->d_lock);