diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/GatewayMetaState.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/GatewayMetaState.java
index 82fea02386890..20a5225379f06 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/GatewayMetaState.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/GatewayMetaState.java
@@ -455,7 +455,7 @@ public void setCurrentTerm(long currentTerm) {
                     getWriterSafe().writeFullStateAndCommit(currentTerm, lastAcceptedState);
                     writeNextStateFully = false;
                 } else {
-                    getWriterSafe().commit(currentTerm, lastAcceptedState.version());
+                    getWriterSafe().writeIncrementalTermUpdateAndCommit(currentTerm, lastAcceptedState.version());
                 }
             } catch (Exception e) {
                 handleExceptionOnWrite(e);
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/PersistedClusterStateService.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/PersistedClusterStateService.java
index 06e5e76ca494e..1b5bb0ac8c0d6 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/PersistedClusterStateService.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/PersistedClusterStateService.java
@@ -609,7 +609,8 @@ public void writeFullStateAndCommit(long currentTerm, ClusterState clusterState)
         void writeIncrementalStateAndCommit(long currentTerm, ClusterState previousClusterState,
                                             ClusterState clusterState) throws IOException {
             ensureOpen();
-            assert fullStateWritten : "Need to write full state first before doing incremental writes";
+            ensureFullStateWritten();
+
             try {
                 final long startTimeMillis = relativeTimeMillisSupplier.getAsLong();
                 final WriterStats stats = updateMetadata(previousClusterState.metadata(), clusterState.metadata());
@@ -631,6 +632,15 @@ void writeIncrementalStateAndCommit(long currentTerm, ClusterState previousClust
             }
         }
 
+        private void ensureFullStateWritten() {
+            assert fullStateWritten : "Need to write full state first before doing incremental writes";
+            //noinspection ConstantConditions to catch this even if assertions are disabled
+            if (fullStateWritten == false) {
+                logger.error("cannot write incremental state");
+                throw new IllegalStateException("cannot write incremental state");
+            }
+        }
+
         /**
          * Update the persisted metadata to match the given cluster state by removing any stale or unnecessary documents and adding any
          * updated documents.
@@ -730,7 +740,13 @@ private WriterStats addMetadata(Metadata metadata) throws IOException {
             return new WriterStats(true, metadata.indices().size(), 0);
         }
 
-        public void commit(long currentTerm, long lastAcceptedVersion) throws IOException {
+        public void writeIncrementalTermUpdateAndCommit(long currentTerm, long lastAcceptedVersion) throws IOException {
+            ensureOpen();
+            ensureFullStateWritten();
+            commit(currentTerm, lastAcceptedVersion);
+        }
+
+        void commit(long currentTerm, long lastAcceptedVersion) throws IOException {
             ensureOpen();
             try {
                 for (MetadataIndexWriter metadataIndexWriter : metadataIndexWriters) {