diff --git a/src/tool_operate.c b/src/tool_operate.c
index c9bb636827..97a1d93047 100644
--- a/src/tool_operate.c
+++ b/src/tool_operate.c
@@ -671,7 +671,7 @@ static CURLcode post_output_handling(struct per_transfer *per,
       return CURLE_WRITE_ERROR;
   }
 
-  if(!outs->regular_file && outs->stream) {
+  if(!outs->regular_file && outs->stream && !outs->out_null) {
     /* Dump standard stream buffered data */
     rc = fflush(outs->stream);
     if(!result && rc) {