diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 3236e3237401b5..8a1211b9f2c6f0 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -155,6 +155,9 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](http://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/).
 - When a tensor is logged with `self.log`, run its computation with the same `dtype` ([#10076](https://github.com/PyTorchLightning/pytorch-lightning/pull/10076))
 
 
+- Fixed `ShardedTensor` state dict hook registration to check if torch distributed is available ([#10621](https://github.com/PyTorchLightning/pytorch-lightning/pull/10621))
+
+
 - Fixed LigtningLite `_wrap_init` popping unexisting keys from DataLoader signature parameters  ([#10613](https://github.com/PyTorchLightning/pytorch-lightning/pull/10613))
 
 
diff --git a/pytorch_lightning/core/lightning.py b/pytorch_lightning/core/lightning.py
index dc3ce5f0f4063b..89f46949a525c0 100644
--- a/pytorch_lightning/core/lightning.py
+++ b/pytorch_lightning/core/lightning.py
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@
 )
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.apply_func import apply_to_collection, convert_to_tensors
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.cloud_io import get_filesystem
-from pytorch_lightning.utilities.distributed import distributed_available, sync_ddp
+from pytorch_lightning.utilities.distributed import distributed_available, rank_zero_debug, sync_ddp
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.exceptions import MisconfigurationException
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.memory import get_model_size_mb
 from pytorch_lightning.utilities.model_summary import ModelSummary, summarize
@@ -1990,7 +1990,8 @@ def _register_sharded_tensor_state_dict_hooks_if_available(self) -> None:
 
         These hooks ensure that ShardedTensors are included when saving, and are loaded the LightningModule correctly.
         """
-        if not _TORCH_GREATER_EQUAL_1_10 or _IS_WINDOWS:
+        if not _TORCH_GREATER_EQUAL_1_10 or _IS_WINDOWS or not torch.distributed.is_available():
+            rank_zero_debug("Could not register sharded tensor state dict hooks")
             return
 
         from torch.distributed._sharded_tensor import pre_load_state_dict_hook, state_dict_hook