diff --git a/src/tracker-store/tracker-main.vala b/src/tracker-store/tracker-main.vala
index 1e8d1ddd2..0db9b6653 100644
--- a/src/tracker-store/tracker-main.vala
+++ b/src/tracker-store/tracker-main.vala
@@ -368,12 +368,12 @@ License which can be viewed at:
 
 		message ("Cleaning up");
 
+		data_manager = null;
+		connection = null;
+
 		/* Shutdown major subsystems */
 		Tracker.Writeback.shutdown ();
 		Tracker.Events.shutdown ();
-
-		data_manager = null;
-		connection = null;
 		Tracker.DBus.shutdown ();
 		Tracker.Log.shutdown ();
 
diff --git a/src/tracker-store/tracker-writeback.c b/src/tracker-store/tracker-writeback.c
index 32517d553..fde45afc0 100644
--- a/src/tracker-store/tracker-writeback.c
+++ b/src/tracker-store/tracker-writeback.c
@@ -200,6 +200,8 @@ tracker_writeback_transact (void)
 	GHashTableIter iter;
 	gpointer key, value;
 
+	g_return_if_fail (private == NULL);
+
 	if (!private->pending_events)
 		return;