diff --git a/src/libsystemd/sd-varlink/sd-varlink.c b/src/libsystemd/sd-varlink/sd-varlink.c
index fe2bf0e638..a9bbb8f79c 100644
--- a/src/libsystemd/sd-varlink/sd-varlink.c
+++ b/src/libsystemd/sd-varlink/sd-varlink.c
@@ -3880,8 +3880,6 @@ static int count_connection(sd_varlink_server *server, const struct ucred *ucred
         assert(server);
         assert(ucred);
 
-        server->n_connections++;
-
         if (FLAGS_SET(server->flags, SD_VARLINK_SERVER_ACCOUNT_UID)) {
                 assert(uid_is_valid(ucred->uid));
 
@@ -3899,6 +3897,8 @@ static int count_connection(sd_varlink_server *server, const struct ucred *ucred
                         return varlink_server_log_errno(server, r, "Failed to increment counter in UID hash table: %m");
         }
 
+        server->n_connections++;
+
         return 0;
 }