diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/volumemanager/populator/desired_state_of_world_populator.go b/pkg/kubelet/volumemanager/populator/desired_state_of_world_populator.go
index 56f326cc19d..ac83f3c0168 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/volumemanager/populator/desired_state_of_world_populator.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/volumemanager/populator/desired_state_of_world_populator.go
@@ -505,11 +505,14 @@ func (dswp *desiredStateOfWorldPopulator) createVolumeSpec(
 			pvcSource.ClaimName,
 			pvcUID)
 
-		// TODO: remove features.BlockVolume checks / comments after no longer needed
-		volumeMode, err := util.GetVolumeMode(volumeSpec)
-		if err != nil {
-			return nil, nil, "", err
+		// TODO: replace this with util.GetVolumeMode() when features.BlockVolume is removed.
+		// The function will return the right value then.
+		volumeMode := v1.PersistentVolumeFilesystem
+		if volumeSpec.PersistentVolume != nil && volumeSpec.PersistentVolume.Spec.VolumeMode != nil {
+			volumeMode = *volumeSpec.PersistentVolume.Spec.VolumeMode
 		}
+
+		// TODO: remove features.BlockVolume checks / comments after no longer needed
 		// Error if a container has volumeMounts but the volumeMode of PVC isn't Filesystem.
 		// Do not check feature gate here to make sure even when the feature is disabled in kubelet,
 		// because controller-manager / API server can already contain block PVs / PVCs.