diff --git a/modules/gui/qt/medialibrary/mlbasemodel.cpp b/modules/gui/qt/medialibrary/mlbasemodel.cpp
index 4549dacb57d12076566b91feb3cb651d9c5fce2f..68eb28dac9d0c399e18f42971d1f6b5f343af25a 100644
--- a/modules/gui/qt/medialibrary/mlbasemodel.cpp
+++ b/modules/gui/qt/medialibrary/mlbasemodel.cpp
@@ -237,7 +237,7 @@ void MLBaseModel::unsetSortCriteria()
 
 int MLBaseModel::rowCount(const QModelIndex &parent) const
 {
-    if (parent.isValid())
+    if (!m_mediaLib || parent.isValid())
         return 0;
 
     validateCache();
@@ -302,7 +302,10 @@ QVariantList MLBaseModel::getIdsForIndexes(QVariantList indexes) const
 
 unsigned MLBaseModel::getCount() const
 {
-    if (!m_cache || m_cache->count() == COUNT_UNINITIALIZED)
+    if (!m_mediaLib)
+        return 0;
+    validateCache();
+    if (m_cache->count() == COUNT_UNINITIALIZED)
         return 0;
     return static_cast<unsigned>(m_cache->count());
 }