diff --git a/src/vulkan/screenshot-layer/screenshot_params.c b/src/vulkan/screenshot-layer/screenshot_params.c
index cd6d0e43278..0571ce2b7c4 100644
--- a/src/vulkan/screenshot-layer/screenshot_params.c
+++ b/src/vulkan/screenshot-layer/screenshot_params.c
@@ -369,7 +369,10 @@ parse_output_dir(const char *str)
       output_dir[last_char_index+1] = '/';
    }
    DIR *dir = opendir(output_dir);
-   assert(dir);
+   if (!dir) {
+      LOG(ERROR, "Failed to open output directory `%s': %s\n", output_dir, strerror(errno));
+      return NULL;
+   }
    closedir(dir);
 
    return output_dir;