diff --git a/artiq/master/worker_db.py b/artiq/master/worker_db.py
index 17dee5a1b..c0cbbe73d 100644
--- a/artiq/master/worker_db.py
+++ b/artiq/master/worker_db.py
@@ -191,7 +191,8 @@ class DatasetManager:
         try:
             return self.local[key]
         except KeyError:
-            return self.ddb.get(key)
+            pass
+        return self.ddb.get(key)
 
     def write_hdf5(self, f):
         result_dict_to_hdf5(f, self.local)