diff --git a/drivers/net/vxlan/vxlan_core.c b/drivers/net/vxlan/vxlan_core.c
index 1ded27768a97..824144bb7774 100644
--- a/drivers/net/vxlan/vxlan_core.c
+++ b/drivers/net/vxlan/vxlan_core.c
@@ -4500,7 +4500,7 @@ static int vxlan_changelink(struct net_device *dev, struct nlattr *tb[],
 	if (change_igmp && vxlan_addr_multicast(&dst->remote_ip))
 		err = vxlan_multicast_leave(vxlan);
 
-	if (conf.age_interval != vxlan->cfg.age_interval)
+	if (netif_running(dev) && conf.age_interval != vxlan->cfg.age_interval)
 		mod_timer(&vxlan->age_timer, jiffies);
 
 	netdev_adjacent_change_commit(dst->remote_dev, lowerdev, dev);