diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSImageFormatProtobuf.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSImageFormatProtobuf.java
index b887a1438e249..31d03c86fc32e 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSImageFormatProtobuf.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/namenode/FSImageFormatProtobuf.java
@@ -306,7 +306,7 @@ public int compare(FileSummary.Section s1, FileSummary.Section s2) {
         String n = s.getName();
         SectionName sectionName = SectionName.fromString(n);
         if (sectionName == null) {
-          throw new IOException("Unrecognized section " + n);
+          LOG.error("Unrecognized section " + n);
         }
         switch (sectionName) {
         case NS_INFO: