diff --git a/hbase-replication/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/TableReplicationQueueStorage.java b/hbase-replication/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/TableReplicationQueueStorage.java
index e59edd52f793..8fff3d461f74 100644
--- a/hbase-replication/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/TableReplicationQueueStorage.java
+++ b/hbase-replication/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/TableReplicationQueueStorage.java
@@ -533,7 +533,7 @@ public Set<String> getAllHFileRefs() throws ReplicationException {
   @Override
   public boolean hasData() throws ReplicationException {
     try {
-      return conn.getAdmin().getDescriptor(tableName) != null;
+      return conn.getAdmin().tableExists(tableName);
     } catch (IOException e) {
       throw new ReplicationException("failed to get replication queue table", e);
     }