diff --git a/plugins/out_splunk/splunk.c b/plugins/out_splunk/splunk.c
index 6c25b5b4ac6..7492d7940d8 100644
--- a/plugins/out_splunk/splunk.c
+++ b/plugins/out_splunk/splunk.c
@@ -354,9 +354,9 @@ static flb_sds_t extract_hec_token(struct flb_splunk *ctx, msgpack_object map,
 
     /* Extract HEC token (map which is from metadata lookup) */
     if (ctx->metadata_auth_key) {
-        hec_token = flb_ra_translate_check(ctx->ra_metadata_auth_key, tag, tag_len,
-                                     map, NULL, FLB_TRUE);
-        if (hec_token) {
+        hec_token = flb_ra_translate(ctx->ra_metadata_auth_key, tag, tag_len,
+                                     map, NULL);
+        if (hec_token && flb_sds_len(hec_token) > 0) {
             return hec_token;
         }