diff --git a/src/plugins/debugger/gdb/gdbengine.cpp b/src/plugins/debugger/gdb/gdbengine.cpp
index 5d20589e022ec700075e8bf6bf4fa7aadff97f2f..0edf1070e312ad1bb35e3c555694c60ae832c71c 100644
--- a/src/plugins/debugger/gdb/gdbengine.cpp
+++ b/src/plugins/debugger/gdb/gdbengine.cpp
@@ -1811,7 +1811,8 @@ QString GdbEngine::cleanupFullName(const QString &fileName)
     // Gdb running on windows often delivers "fullnames" which
     // (a) have no drive letter and (b) are not normalized.
     if (Abi::hostAbi().os() == Abi::WindowsOS) {
-        QTC_ASSERT(!fileName.isEmpty(), return QString());
+        if (fileName.isEmpty())
+            return QString();
         QFileInfo fi(fileName);
         if (fi.isReadable())
             cleanFilePath = QDir::cleanPath(fi.absoluteFilePath());