diff --git a/gst/playback/gstplaysink.c b/gst/playback/gstplaysink.c
index 57d194f51f..a757b2dbc6 100644
--- a/gst/playback/gstplaysink.c
+++ b/gst/playback/gstplaysink.c
@@ -1530,7 +1530,7 @@ gen_text_chain (GstPlaySink * playsink)
           chain->queue = NULL;
         }
         /* try to set sync to true but it's no biggie when we can't */
-        if ((elem =
+        if (chain->sink && (elem =
                 gst_play_sink_find_property_sinks (playsink, chain->sink,
                     "sync", G_TYPE_BOOLEAN)))
           g_object_set (elem, "sync", TRUE, NULL);