diff --git a/pkg/services/ngalert/provisioning/alert_rules.go b/pkg/services/ngalert/provisioning/alert_rules.go
index 20c6046028f..4aab1d60f41 100644
--- a/pkg/services/ngalert/provisioning/alert_rules.go
+++ b/pkg/services/ngalert/provisioning/alert_rules.go
@@ -663,8 +663,8 @@ func (service *AlertRuleService) ensureRuleNamespace(ctx context.Context, user i
 		return fmt.Errorf("%w: folderUID must be set", models.ErrAlertRuleFailedValidation)
 	}
 
-	if user == nil {
-		// user is nil when this is called during file provisioning,
+	if service.folderService == nil {
+		// folder service is nil when this is called during file provisioning,
 		// which already creates the folder if it does not exist
 		return nil
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/services/provisioning/provisioning.go b/pkg/services/provisioning/provisioning.go
index 3e62ef78709..44916f8c394 100644
--- a/pkg/services/provisioning/provisioning.go
+++ b/pkg/services/provisioning/provisioning.go
@@ -248,7 +248,7 @@ func (ps *ProvisioningServiceImpl) ProvisionAlerting(ctx context.Context) error
 	ruleService := provisioning.NewAlertRuleService(
 		st,
 		st,
-		ps.folderService,
+		nil,
 		ps.dashboardService,
 		ps.quotaService,
 		ps.SQLStore,