diff --git a/client/state/state_database.go b/client/state/state_database.go
index f2bc5afa2..bb42a59ae 100644
--- a/client/state/state_database.go
+++ b/client/state/state_database.go
@@ -275,6 +275,11 @@ func (s *BoltStateDB) GetDeploymentStatus(allocID string) (*structs.AllocDeploym
 		return allocBkt.Get(allocDeployStatusKey, &entry)
 	})
 
+	// It's valid for this field to be nil/missing
+	if boltdd.IsErrNotFound(err) {
+		return nil, nil
+	}
+
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}