diff --git a/tools/igv_visualize/igv_visualize.rule.snakefile b/tools/igv_visualize/igv_visualize.rule.snakefile
index 425e190f069292015620923f9acd9229a3247a1f..ec498c59766ee86c9282c765b3130b8c350f66f4 100755
--- a/tools/igv_visualize/igv_visualize.rule.snakefile
+++ b/tools/igv_visualize/igv_visualize.rule.snakefile
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ rule <step_name>__igv_visualize:
     shell:
         #plot IGV mapping res
         "cd {params.output_dir}; "
-        "sed -i 's|DEFAULT_GENOME_KEY=.*|DEFAULT_GENOME_KEY={input.genome}|' /root/igv/prefs.properties; "
+        "if [ -f /root/igv/prefs.properties ]; then sed -i 's|DEFAULT_GENOME_KEY=.*|DEFAULT_GENOME_KEY={input.genome}|' /root/igv/prefs.properties fi; "
         "cat <<-EOF > igv.batch\n"
         "new\n"
         "genome {input.genome}\n"