diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/mvm/mac80211.c b/drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/mvm/mac80211.c
index 2fb5fb41f508..98172da346fb 100644
--- a/drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/mvm/mac80211.c
+++ b/drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/mvm/mac80211.c
@@ -1033,6 +1033,7 @@ static void iwl_mvm_cleanup_iterator(void *data, u8 *mac,
 	spin_unlock_bh(&mvm->time_event_lock);
 
 	memset(&mvmvif->bf_data, 0, sizeof(mvmvif->bf_data));
+	mvmvif->ap_sta = NULL;
 
 	for_each_mvm_vif_valid_link(mvmvif, link_id) {
 		mvmvif->link[link_id]->ap_sta_id = IWL_MVM_INVALID_STA;
@@ -3871,7 +3872,11 @@ int iwl_mvm_mac_sta_state_common(struct ieee80211_hw *hw,
 
 	mutex_lock(&mvm->mutex);
 
-	/* this would be a mac80211 bug ... but don't crash */
+	/* this would be a mac80211 bug ... but don't crash, unless we had a
+	 * firmware crash while we were activating a link, in which case it is
+	 * legit to have phy_ctxt = NULL. Don't bother not to WARN if we are in
+	 * recovery flow since we spit tons of error messages anyway.
+	 */
 	for_each_sta_active_link(vif, sta, link_sta, link_id) {
 		if (WARN_ON_ONCE(!mvmvif->link[link_id] ||
 				 !mvmvif->link[link_id]->phy_ctxt)) {