diff --git a/src/iocore/cache/StripeSM.cc b/src/iocore/cache/StripeSM.cc
index 6c8873b15f0..f01a8ab6031 100644
--- a/src/iocore/cache/StripeSM.cc
+++ b/src/iocore/cache/StripeSM.cc
@@ -216,7 +216,6 @@ StripeSM::handle_dir_clear(int event, void *data)
     if (!op->ok()) {
       Warning("unable to clear cache directory '%s'", hash_text.get());
       disk->incrErrors(op);
-      fd = -1;
     }
 
     if (op->aiocb.aio_nbytes == dir_len) {