diff --git a/drivers/media/v4l2-core/v4l2-fwnode.c b/drivers/media/v4l2-core/v4l2-fwnode.c
index ae140443847b..afceb35e500c 100644
--- a/drivers/media/v4l2-core/v4l2-fwnode.c
+++ b/drivers/media/v4l2-core/v4l2-fwnode.c
@@ -894,21 +894,8 @@ static int v4l2_fwnode_reference_parse(struct device *dev,
 	int ret;
 
 	for (index = 0;
-	     !(ret = fwnode_property_get_reference_args(dev_fwnode(dev),
-							prop, NULL, 0,
-							index, &args));
-	     index++)
-		fwnode_handle_put(args.fwnode);
-
-	if (!index)
-		return -ENOENT;
-
-	if (ret != -ENOENT)
-		return ret;
-
-	for (index = 0;
-	     !fwnode_property_get_reference_args(dev_fwnode(dev), prop, NULL,
-						 0, index, &args);
+	     !(ret = fwnode_property_get_reference_args(dev_fwnode(dev), prop,
+							NULL, 0, index, &args));
 	     index++) {
 		struct v4l2_async_subdev *asd;
 
@@ -924,7 +911,12 @@ static int v4l2_fwnode_reference_parse(struct device *dev,
 		}
 	}
 
-	return 0;
+	/* -ENOENT here means successful parsing */
+	if (ret != -ENOENT)
+		return ret;
+
+	/* Return -ENOENT if no references were found */
+	return index ? 0 : -ENOENT;
 }
 
 /*