diff --git a/cicecore/cicedyn/infrastructure/io/io_pio2/ice_restart.F90 b/cicecore/cicedyn/infrastructure/io/io_pio2/ice_restart.F90
index b487c243d..2d98716b2 100644
--- a/cicecore/cicedyn/infrastructure/io/io_pio2/ice_restart.F90
+++ b/cicecore/cicedyn/infrastructure/io/io_pio2/ice_restart.F90
@@ -741,6 +741,8 @@ subroutine read_restart_field(nu,nrec,work,atype,vname,ndim3,diag, &
       call ice_pio_check(pio_inq_varndims(File, vardesc, ndims), &
            subname// " ERROR: missing varndims "//trim(vname),file=__FILE__,line=__LINE__)
 
+      call pio_seterrorhandling(File, PIO_INTERNAL_ERROR)
+
       if (ndim3 == ncat .and. ndims == 3) then
          call pio_read_darray(File, vardesc, iodesc3d_ncat, work, status)
 #ifdef CESMCOUPLED
@@ -768,8 +770,6 @@ subroutine read_restart_field(nu,nrec,work,atype,vname,ndim3,diag, &
       call ice_pio_check(status, &
            subname//" ERROR: reading var "//trim(vname),file=__FILE__,line=__LINE__)
 
-      call pio_seterrorhandling(File, PIO_INTERNAL_ERROR)
-
       if (diag) then
          if (ndim3 > 1) then
             do n=1,ndim3