diff --git a/libc/stdlib/lib_mkstemp.c b/libc/stdlib/lib_mkstemp.c
index fdf93cdfaf4..498d424e373 100644
--- a/libc/stdlib/lib_mkstemp.c
+++ b/libc/stdlib/lib_mkstemp.c
@@ -284,6 +284,8 @@ int mkstemp(FAR char *path_template)
 
           return fd;
         }
+
+      retries--;
     }
 
   /* We could not find an unique filename */