diff --git a/gst-libs/gst/vaapi/gstvaapidecoder_h264.c b/gst-libs/gst/vaapi/gstvaapidecoder_h264.c
index ac45427645..a0698659d8 100644
--- a/gst-libs/gst/vaapi/gstvaapidecoder_h264.c
+++ b/gst-libs/gst/vaapi/gstvaapidecoder_h264.c
@@ -4381,6 +4381,9 @@ gst_vaapi_decoder_h264_decode_codec_data (GstVaapiDecoder * base_decoder,
   GstH264ParserResult result;
   guint i, ofs, num_sps, num_pps;
 
+  if (!priv->is_opened)
+    return GST_VAAPI_DECODER_STATUS_SUCCESS;
+
   unit.parsed_info = NULL;
 
   if (buf_size < 7)
diff --git a/gst-libs/gst/vaapi/gstvaapidecoder_h265.c b/gst-libs/gst/vaapi/gstvaapidecoder_h265.c
index 9d2fa6ee17..e9353cf40b 100644
--- a/gst-libs/gst/vaapi/gstvaapidecoder_h265.c
+++ b/gst-libs/gst/vaapi/gstvaapidecoder_h265.c
@@ -2653,6 +2653,9 @@ gst_vaapi_decoder_h265_decode_codec_data (GstVaapiDecoder *
   guint num_nal_arrays, num_nals;
   guint i, j, ofs;
 
+  if (!priv->is_opened)
+    return GST_VAAPI_DECODER_STATUS_SUCCESS;
+
   unit.parsed_info = NULL;
   if (buf_size < 23)
     return GST_VAAPI_DECODER_STATUS_ERROR_NO_DATA;