diff --git a/onionshare_gui/share_mode/threads.py b/onionshare_gui/share_mode/threads.py
index d6022746..24e2c242 100644
--- a/onionshare_gui/share_mode/threads.py
+++ b/onionshare_gui/share_mode/threads.py
@@ -56,5 +56,8 @@ class CompressThread(QtCore.QThread):
 
         # Let the Web and ZipWriter objects know that we're canceling compression early
         self.mode.web.cancel_compression = True
-        if self.mode.web.zip_writer:
+        try:
             self.mode.web.zip_writer.cancel_compression = True
+        except AttributeError:
+            # we never made it as far as creating a ZipWriter object
+            pass