diff --git a/sound/soc/sof/ipc4-pcm.c b/sound/soc/sof/ipc4-pcm.c
index 2d89d3708ed0..521090d4498d 100644
--- a/sound/soc/sof/ipc4-pcm.c
+++ b/sound/soc/sof/ipc4-pcm.c
@@ -213,7 +213,7 @@ static int sof_ipc4_trigger_pipelines(struct snd_soc_component *component,
 	pipeline_list = &spcm->stream[substream->stream].pipeline_list;
 
 	/* nothing to trigger if the list is empty */
-	if (!pipeline_list->pipelines)
+	if (!pipeline_list->pipelines || !pipeline_list->count)
 		return 0;
 
 	/* allocate memory for the pipeline data */