diff --git a/libtransmission/fdlimit.c b/libtransmission/fdlimit.c
index 97f0c289e..0bc46f80e 100644
--- a/libtransmission/fdlimit.c
+++ b/libtransmission/fdlimit.c
@@ -126,9 +126,10 @@ TrOpenFile( int          i,
         char * tmp = tr_dirname( filename );
         const int err = tr_mkdirp( tmp, 0777 ) ? errno : 0;
         tr_free( tmp );
-        tr_free( filename );
-        if( err )
+        if( err ) {
+            tr_free( filename );
             return err;
+        }
     }
 
     /* open the file */