diff --git a/mlir/lib/Bytecode/Writer/BytecodeWriter.cpp b/mlir/lib/Bytecode/Writer/BytecodeWriter.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/Bytecode/Writer/BytecodeWriter.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Bytecode/Writer/BytecodeWriter.cpp
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 #include "mlir/Bytecode/BytecodeOpInterface.h"
 #include "mlir/Bytecode/Encoding.h"
 #include "mlir/IR/Attributes.h"
+#include "mlir/IR/Diagnostics.h"
 #include "mlir/IR/OpImplementation.h"
 #include "mlir/Support/LogicalResult.h"
 #include "llvm/ADT/ArrayRef.h"
@@ -459,6 +460,9 @@
     }
   }
 
+  /// Returns true if the section is empty.
+  bool empty() { return propertiesStorage.empty(); }
+
 private:
   /// Emit raw data and returns the offset in the internal buffer.
   /// Data are deduplicated and will be copied in the internal buffer only if
@@ -648,7 +652,11 @@
   writeStringSection(emitter);
 
   // Emit the properties section.
-  writePropertiesSection(emitter);
+  if (config.bytecodeVersion <= 5)
+    writePropertiesSection(emitter);
+  else if (!propertiesSection.empty())
+    return rootOp->emitError(
+        "unexpected properties emitted incompatible with bytecode <5");
 
   // Write the generated bytecode to the provided output stream.
   emitter.writeTo(os);