diff --git a/src/datajoint/autopopulate.py b/src/datajoint/autopopulate.py
index c1a6ce510..02193f496 100644
--- a/src/datajoint/autopopulate.py
+++ b/src/datajoint/autopopulate.py
@@ -525,7 +525,8 @@ def handler(signum, frame):
                 else:
                     # spawn multiple processes
                     self.connection.close()
-                    del self.connection._conn.ctx  # SSLContext is not pickleable
+                    if hasattr(self.connection._conn, "ctx"):
+                        del self.connection._conn.ctx  # SSLContext is not pickleable
                     with (
                         mp.Pool(processes, _initialize_populate, (self, self.jobs, populate_kwargs)) as pool,
                         tqdm(desc="Processes: ", total=nkeys)