diff --git a/src/libOpenImageIO/imageioplugin.cpp b/src/libOpenImageIO/imageioplugin.cpp
index 5c53f37c29..61368a65a7 100644
--- a/src/libOpenImageIO/imageioplugin.cpp
+++ b/src/libOpenImageIO/imageioplugin.cpp
@@ -565,10 +565,10 @@ ImageOutput::create(string_view filename, Filesystem::IOProxy* ioproxy,
     }
     if (out && ioproxy) {
         if (!out->supports("ioproxy")) {
-            out.reset();
             OIIO::pvt::errorfmt(
                 "ImageOutput::create called with IOProxy, but format {} does not support IOProxy",
                 out->format_name());
+            out.reset();
         } else {
             out->set_ioproxy(ioproxy);
         }