diff --git a/cmd/geth/chaincmd.go b/cmd/geth/chaincmd.go
index 562c7e0dee..26db6ce7dd 100644
--- a/cmd/geth/chaincmd.go
+++ b/cmd/geth/chaincmd.go
@@ -372,7 +372,9 @@ func copyDb(ctx *cli.Context) error {
 	chain, chainDb := utils.MakeChain(ctx, stack)
 
 	syncmode := *utils.GlobalTextMarshaler(ctx, utils.SyncModeFlag.Name).(*downloader.SyncMode)
-	dl := downloader.New(syncmode, chainDb, new(event.TypeMux), chain, nil, nil)
+	// Set a non-nil dropfunction to prevent panic
+	dropFn := func(id string) {}
+	dl := downloader.New(syncmode, chainDb, new(event.TypeMux), chain, nil, dropFn)
 
 	// Create a source peer to satisfy downloader requests from
 	db, err := ethdb.NewLDBDatabase(ctx.Args().First(), ctx.GlobalInt(utils.CacheFlag.Name), 256)