diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/SnapshotsInProgress.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/SnapshotsInProgress.java
index 22bee83e3482c..48efab71e0bc9 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/SnapshotsInProgress.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/SnapshotsInProgress.java
@@ -354,7 +354,6 @@ public ShardSnapshotStatus(StreamInput in) throws IOException {
             state = ShardState.fromValue(in.readByte());
             if (in.getVersion().onOrAfter(SnapshotsService.SHARD_GEN_IN_REPO_DATA_VERSION)) {
                 generation = in.readOptionalString();
-                assert generation != null || state != ShardState.SUCCESS : "Received null generation for shard state [" + state + "]";
             } else {
                 generation = null;
             }