diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/SnapshotsInProgress.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/SnapshotsInProgress.java
index 8a112950204c6..0afd79269796d 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/SnapshotsInProgress.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/SnapshotsInProgress.java
@@ -279,7 +279,6 @@ 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;
             }