diff --git a/media/libmediaplayerservice/nuplayer/StreamingSource.cpp b/media/libmediaplayerservice/nuplayer/StreamingSource.cpp
index c4147e1..a7c5cf4 100644
--- a/media/libmediaplayerservice/nuplayer/StreamingSource.cpp
+++ b/media/libmediaplayerservice/nuplayer/StreamingSource.cpp
@@ -229,7 +229,8 @@
 
     sp<MetaData> meta = source->getFormat();
     status_t err = convertMetaDataToMessage(meta, &format);
-    if (err != OK) {
+    if (err != OK) { // format may have been cleared on error
+        format = new AMessage;
         format->setInt32("err", err);
     }
     return format;
diff --git a/media/libstagefright/SimpleDecodingSource.cpp b/media/libstagefright/SimpleDecodingSource.cpp
index 1b44a00..de21c5e 100644
--- a/media/libstagefright/SimpleDecodingSource.cpp
+++ b/media/libstagefright/SimpleDecodingSource.cpp
@@ -43,7 +43,9 @@
     CHECK(meta->findCString(kKeyMIMEType, &mime));
 
     sp<AMessage> format = new AMessage;
-    convertMetaDataToMessage(source->getFormat(), &format);
+    if (convertMetaDataToMessage(source->getFormat(), &format) != OK) {
+        return NULL;
+    }
 
     Vector<AString> matchingCodecs;
     MediaCodecList::findMatchingCodecs(