diff --git a/thorlcr/thorutil/thormisc.cpp b/thorlcr/thorutil/thormisc.cpp
index 63d0431f7e0..12926c92956 100644
--- a/thorlcr/thorutil/thormisc.cpp
+++ b/thorlcr/thorutil/thormisc.cpp
@@ -1709,31 +1709,30 @@ void saveWuidToFile(const char *wuid)
 bool hasTLK(IDistributedFile &file, CActivityBase *activity)
 {
     unsigned np = file.numParts();
+    if (np<=1) // NB: a better test would be to only continue if this is a width that is +1 of group it's based on, but not worth checking
+        return false;
     IDistributedFilePart &part = file.queryPart(np-1);
     bool keyHasTlk = strisame("topLevelKey", part.queryAttributes().queryProp("@kind"));
     if (!keyHasTlk)
     {
         // See HPCC-32845 - check if TLK flag is missing from TLK part
         // It is very likely the last part should be a TLK. Even a local key (>1 parts) has a TLK by default (see buildLocalTlks)
-        if (np>1)
+        RemoteFilename rfn;
+        part.getFilename(rfn);
+        StringBuffer filename;
+        rfn.getPath(filename);
+        Owned<IKeyIndex> index = createKeyIndex(filename, 0, false, 0);
+        dbgassertex(index);
+        if (index->isTopLevelKey())
         {
-            RemoteFilename rfn;
-            part.getFilename(rfn);
-            StringBuffer filename;
-            rfn.getPath(filename);
-            Owned<IKeyIndex> index = createKeyIndex(filename, 0, false, 0);
-            dbgassertex(index);
-            if (index->isTopLevelKey())
+            if (activity)
             {
-                if (activity)
-                {
-                    Owned<IException> e = MakeActivityException(activity, 0, "TLK file part of file %s is missing kind=\"topLevelKey\" flag. The meta data should be fixed!", file.queryLogicalName());
-                    reportExceptionToWorkunitCheckIgnore(activity->queryJob().queryWorkUnit(), e, SeverityWarning);
-                    StringBuffer errMsg;
-                    UWARNLOG("%s", e->errorMessage(errMsg).str());
-                }
-                keyHasTlk = true;
+                Owned<IException> e = MakeActivityException(activity, 0, "TLK file part of file %s is missing kind=\"topLevelKey\" flag. The meta data should be fixed!", file.queryLogicalName());
+                reportExceptionToWorkunitCheckIgnore(activity->queryJob().queryWorkUnit(), e, SeverityWarning);
+                StringBuffer errMsg;
+                UWARNLOG("%s", e->errorMessage(errMsg).str());
             }
+            keyHasTlk = true;
         }
     }
     return keyHasTlk;