diff --git a/filefield_meta/filefield_meta.install b/filefield_meta/filefield_meta.install
index fea9489601c8d3b0d5e909be5ee87e5cd747e5a4..25a8497b5d67a2992ce04eaf8699026492d2fe92 100644
--- a/filefield_meta/filefield_meta.install
+++ b/filefield_meta/filefield_meta.install
@@ -147,8 +147,13 @@ function filefield_meta_update_6100(&$context) {
     $context['sandbox']['progress'] = 0;
     $context['sandbox']['total'] = db_result(db_query("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM {files} f INNER JOIN {filefield_meta} fm ON f.fid = fm.fid WHERE fm.audio_format <> ''"));
     $context['sandbox']['current_fid'] = 0;
-
-    db_add_field($ret, 'filefield_meta', 'tags', array('type' => 'text'));
+    if (!db_column_exists('filefield_meta', 'tags')) {
+      db_add_field($ret, 'filefield_meta', 'tags', array('type' => 'text'));
+    }
+    // We are done if there are none to update.
+    if ($context['sandbox']['total'] == 0) {
+      return $ret;
+    }
   }
 
   // Select and process 200 files at a time.