diff --git a/src/lib/dma-trace.c b/src/lib/dma-trace.c
index 7569d5df4..429c7b6c9 100644
--- a/src/lib/dma-trace.c
+++ b/src/lib/dma-trace.c
@@ -185,7 +185,10 @@ int dma_trace_host_buffer(struct dma_trace_data *d, struct dma_sg_elem *elem,
 	if (e == NULL)
 		return -ENOMEM;
 
-	*e = *elem;
+	/* copy fields - excluding possibly non-initialized elem->src */
+	e->dest = elem->dest;
+	e->size = elem->size;
+
 	d->host_size = host_size;
 
 	list_item_append(&e->list, &d->config.elem_list);