diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java
index b7502cb0363c3..214b6bc14c65c 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/InternalEngine.java
@@ -2756,9 +2756,9 @@ private IndexWriterConfig getIndexWriterConfig() {
 
     private boolean useSyntheticSourceForRecovery() {
         return engineConfig.getMapperService() != null
+            && engineConfig.getMapperService().mappingLookup() != null
             && engineConfig.getMapperService().mappingLookup().isSourceSynthetic()
             && engineConfig.getIndexSettings().isRecoverySourceSyntheticEnabled();
-
     }
 
     /** A listener that warms the segments if needed when acquiring a new reader */