diff --git a/video/frame_encode_metadata_writer.cc b/video/frame_encode_metadata_writer.cc
index 51f09b09c4..9305779832 100644
--- a/video/frame_encode_metadata_writer.cc
+++ b/video/frame_encode_metadata_writer.cc
@@ -70,8 +70,13 @@ void FrameEncodeMetadataWriter::OnEncoderInit(const VideoCodec& codec) {
              codec_settings_.ScalabilityMode() != "") {
     std::unique_ptr<ScalableVideoController> structure =
         CreateScalabilityStructure(codec_settings_.ScalabilityMode());
-    RTC_DCHECK(structure);
-    num_spatial_layers = structure->StreamConfig().num_spatial_layers;
+    if (structure) {
+      num_spatial_layers = structure->StreamConfig().num_spatial_layers;
+    } else {
+      // |structure| maybe nullptr if the scalability mode is invalid.
+      RTC_LOG(LS_WARNING) << "Cannot create ScalabilityStructure, since the "
+                             "scalability mode is invalid";
+    }
   }
   num_spatial_layers_ = std::max(num_spatial_layers, size_t{1});
 }