diff --git a/fs/btrfs/volumes.c b/fs/btrfs/volumes.c
index ab8a66d852f91cb04206361a551b8c57760c9c40..02bbc4c8c755034adde891ec2006ebaec05996dd 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/volumes.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/volumes.c
@@ -3755,6 +3755,7 @@ int btrfs_balance(struct btrfs_balance_control *bctl,
 		  struct btrfs_ioctl_balance_args *bargs)
 {
 	struct btrfs_fs_info *fs_info = bctl->fs_info;
+	u64 meta_target, data_target;
 	u64 allowed;
 	int mixed = 0;
 	int ret;
@@ -3851,11 +3852,16 @@ int btrfs_balance(struct btrfs_balance_control *bctl,
 		}
 	} while (read_seqretry(&fs_info->profiles_lock, seq));
 
-	if (btrfs_get_num_tolerated_disk_barrier_failures(bctl->meta.target) <
-		btrfs_get_num_tolerated_disk_barrier_failures(bctl->data.target)) {
+	/* if we're not converting, the target field is uninitialized */
+	meta_target = (bctl->meta.flags & BTRFS_BALANCE_ARGS_CONVERT) ?
+		bctl->meta.target : fs_info->avail_metadata_alloc_bits;
+	data_target = (bctl->data.flags & BTRFS_BALANCE_ARGS_CONVERT) ?
+		bctl->data.target : fs_info->avail_data_alloc_bits;
+	if (btrfs_get_num_tolerated_disk_barrier_failures(meta_target) <
+		btrfs_get_num_tolerated_disk_barrier_failures(data_target)) {
 		btrfs_warn(fs_info,
 			   "metadata profile 0x%llx has lower redundancy than data profile 0x%llx",
-			   bctl->meta.target, bctl->data.target);
+			   meta_target, data_target);
 	}
 
 	if (bctl->sys.flags & BTRFS_BALANCE_ARGS_CONVERT) {