diff --git a/libcutils/sched_policy.cpp b/libcutils/sched_policy.cpp
index 7e3ad593e..40144cf16 100644
--- a/libcutils/sched_policy.cpp
+++ b/libcutils/sched_policy.cpp
@@ -464,7 +464,7 @@ int set_sched_policy(int tid, SchedPolicy policy)
             break;
         }
 
-        if (add_tid_to_cgroup(tid, fd) != 0) {
+        if (fd > 0 && add_tid_to_cgroup(tid, fd) != 0) {
             if (errno != ESRCH && errno != ENOENT)
                 return -errno;
         }