From 9c374437572ae9b03afa79d1b398861f0c71205d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "J. Nick Koston" <nick@home-assistant.io>
Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2026 21:20:16 -1000
Subject: [PATCH] guard

---
 esphome/components/esp32/preferences.cpp     | 2 +-
 esphome/components/libretiny/preferences.cpp | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/esphome/components/esp32/preferences.cpp b/esphome/components/esp32/preferences.cpp
index 240b834b8d..08439746b6 100644
--- a/esphome/components/esp32/preferences.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/esp32/preferences.cpp
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ struct NVSData {
   size_t len;
 
   void set_data(const uint8_t *src, size_t size) {
-    if (this->len != size) {
+    if (!this->data || this->len != size) {
       this->data = std::make_unique<uint8_t[]>(size);
       this->len = size;
     }
diff --git a/esphome/components/libretiny/preferences.cpp b/esphome/components/libretiny/preferences.cpp
index e08b4d6df3..68bc279767 100644
--- a/esphome/components/libretiny/preferences.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/libretiny/preferences.cpp
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ struct NVSData {
   size_t len;
 
   void set_data(const uint8_t *src, size_t size) {
-    if (this->len != size) {
+    if (!this->data || this->len != size) {
       this->data = std::make_unique<uint8_t[]>(size);
       this->len = size;
     }