diff --git a/gst-libs/gst/pbutils/encoding-target.c b/gst-libs/gst/pbutils/encoding-target.c
index ee6f43b869..d386942f10 100644
--- a/gst-libs/gst/pbutils/encoding-target.c
+++ b/gst-libs/gst/pbutils/encoding-target.c
@@ -890,7 +890,9 @@ gst_encoding_target_load (const gchar * name, const gchar * category,
     for (i = 0; encoding_target_dirs[i]; i++) {
       target = gst_encoding_target_subload (encoding_target_dirs[i],
           category, lfilename, error);
-      break;
+
+      if (target)
+        break;
     }
     g_strfreev (encoding_target_dirs);
     if (target)