diff --git a/libdroplet/src/profile.c b/libdroplet/src/profile.c
index 0a99f85..e5ba003 100644
--- a/libdroplet/src/profile.c
+++ b/libdroplet/src/profile.c
@@ -668,7 +668,6 @@ dpl_profile_default(dpl_ctx_t *ctx)
   ctx->pricing = NULL;
   ctx->pricing_dir = NULL;
   ctx->read_buf_size = DPL_DEFAULT_READ_BUF_SIZE;
-  assert(NULL != ctx->backend);
   ctx->encode_slashes = 0;
   ctx->keep_alive = 1;
   ctx->url_encoding = 1;
@@ -695,6 +694,7 @@ dpl_profile_default(dpl_ctx_t *ctx)
    * be the default backend.
    */
   dpl_backend_set(ctx, "s3");
+  assert(NULL != ctx->backend);
 
   return DPL_SUCCESS;
 }