diff --git a/fs/ext4/acl.c b/fs/ext4/acl.c
index d3c5b88fd89f..e6e0d988439b 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/acl.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/acl.c
@@ -423,8 +423,10 @@ ext4_xattr_set_acl(struct dentry *dentry, const char *name, const void *value,
 
 retry:
 	handle = ext4_journal_start(inode, EXT4_DATA_TRANS_BLOCKS(inode->i_sb));
-	if (IS_ERR(handle))
-		return PTR_ERR(handle);
+	if (IS_ERR(handle)) {
+		error = PTR_ERR(handle);
+		goto release_and_out;
+	}
 	error = ext4_set_acl(handle, inode, type, acl);
 	ext4_journal_stop(handle);
 	if (error == -ENOSPC && ext4_should_retry_alloc(inode->i_sb, &retries))