diff --git a/llvm/include/llvm/Object/Archive.h b/llvm/include/llvm/Object/Archive.h
--- a/llvm/include/llvm/Object/Archive.h
+++ b/llvm/include/llvm/Object/Archive.h
@@ -256,6 +256,8 @@
 
   bool isEmpty() const;
   bool hasSymbolTable() const;
+  // Checks that iterating over the symbol table won't result in any errors.
+  bool isSymbolTableValid() const;
   StringRef getSymbolTable() const { return SymbolTable; }
   StringRef getStringTable() const { return StringTable; }
   uint32_t getNumberOfSymbols() const;
diff --git a/llvm/lib/Object/Archive.cpp b/llvm/lib/Object/Archive.cpp
--- a/llvm/lib/Object/Archive.cpp
+++ b/llvm/lib/Object/Archive.cpp
@@ -993,3 +993,14 @@
 bool Archive::isEmpty() const { return Data.getBufferSize() == 8; }
 
 bool Archive::hasSymbolTable() const { return !SymbolTable.empty(); }
+
+bool Archive::isSymbolTableValid() const {
+  for (const Archive::Symbol &Sym : symbols()) {
+    Expected<Archive::Child> C = Sym.getMember();
+    if (!C) {
+      consumeError(C.takeError());
+      return false;
+    }
+  }
+  return true;
+}
diff --git a/llvm/tools/llvm-ar/llvm-ar.cpp b/llvm/tools/llvm-ar/llvm-ar.cpp
--- a/llvm/tools/llvm-ar/llvm-ar.cpp
+++ b/llvm/tools/llvm-ar/llvm-ar.cpp
@@ -840,10 +840,10 @@
   // When an archive is created or modified, if the s option is given, the
   // resulting archive will have a current symbol table. If the S option
   // is given, it will have no symbol table.
-  // In summary, we only need to update the symbol table if we have none.
-  // This is actually very common because of broken build systems that think
-  // they have to run ranlib.
-  if (OldArchive->hasSymbolTable())
+  // In summary, we only need to update the symbol table if we have none, or if
+  // the current one is invalid. This is actually very common because of broken
+  // build systems that think they have to run ranlib.
+  if (OldArchive->hasSymbolTable() && OldArchive->isSymbolTableValid())
     return;
 
   performWriteOperation(CreateSymTab, OldArchive, nullptr, nullptr);