diff --git a/gobblin-hive-registration/src/main/java/org/apache/gobblin/hive/writer/HiveMetadataWriter.java b/gobblin-hive-registration/src/main/java/org/apache/gobblin/hive/writer/HiveMetadataWriter.java
index 8400dd94b05..d1c30766ffa 100644
--- a/gobblin-hive-registration/src/main/java/org/apache/gobblin/hive/writer/HiveMetadataWriter.java
+++ b/gobblin-hive-registration/src/main/java/org/apache/gobblin/hive/writer/HiveMetadataWriter.java
@@ -17,15 +17,6 @@
 
 package org.apache.gobblin.hive.writer;
 
-import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
-import com.google.common.base.Joiner;
-import com.google.common.base.Optional;
-import com.google.common.base.Throwables;
-import com.google.common.cache.Cache;
-import com.google.common.cache.CacheBuilder;
-import com.google.common.collect.Lists;
-import com.google.common.io.Closer;
-import com.google.common.util.concurrent.ListenableFuture;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Collections;
@@ -37,20 +28,36 @@
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;
 import java.util.stream.Collectors;
-import javax.annotation.Nullable;
 
+import org.apache.avro.Schema;
+import org.apache.avro.generic.GenericRecord;
+import org.apache.avro.specific.SpecificData;
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.api.AlreadyExistsException;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.avro.AvroSerdeUtils;
+
+import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
+import com.google.common.base.Joiner;
+import com.google.common.base.Optional;
+import com.google.common.base.Throwables;
+import com.google.common.cache.Cache;
+import com.google.common.cache.CacheBuilder;
+import com.google.common.collect.Lists;
+import com.google.common.io.Closer;
+import com.google.common.util.concurrent.ListenableFuture;
+
+import javax.annotation.Nullable;
 import lombok.AccessLevel;
 import lombok.Getter;
 import lombok.Setter;
 import lombok.extern.slf4j.Slf4j;
-import org.apache.avro.Schema;
-import org.apache.avro.generic.GenericRecord;
-import org.apache.avro.specific.SpecificData;
+
 import org.apache.gobblin.configuration.State;
 import org.apache.gobblin.data.management.copy.hive.WhitelistBlacklist;
 import org.apache.gobblin.hive.HiveRegister;
 import org.apache.gobblin.hive.HiveRegistrationUnit;
 import org.apache.gobblin.hive.HiveTable;
+import org.apache.gobblin.hive.avro.HiveAvroSerDeManager;
 import org.apache.gobblin.hive.metastore.HiveMetaStoreBasedRegister;
 import org.apache.gobblin.hive.metastore.HiveMetaStoreUtils;
 import org.apache.gobblin.hive.spec.HiveSpec;
@@ -67,10 +74,6 @@
 import org.apache.gobblin.util.AvroUtils;
 import org.apache.gobblin.util.ClustersNames;
 
-import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.api.AlreadyExistsException;
-import org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.avro.AvroSerdeUtils;
-
 
 /**
  * This writer is used to register the hiveSpec into hive metaStore
@@ -307,9 +310,15 @@ protected static boolean updateLatestSchemaMapWithExistingSchema(String dbName,
       return false;
     }
 
-    HiveTable existingTable = hiveRegister.getTable(dbName, tableName).get();
-    latestSchemaMap.put(tableKey,
-        existingTable.getSerDeProps().getProp(AvroSerdeUtils.AvroTableProperties.SCHEMA_LITERAL.getPropName()));
+    HiveTable table = hiveRegister.getTable(dbName, tableName).get();
+    String latestSchema = table.getSerDeProps().getProp(AvroSerdeUtils.AvroTableProperties.SCHEMA_LITERAL.getPropName());
+    if (latestSchema == null) {
+      throw new IllegalStateException(String.format("The %s in the table %s.%s is null. This implies the DB is "
+              + "misconfigured and was not correctly created through Gobblin, since all Gobblin managed tables should "
+              + "have %s", HiveAvroSerDeManager.SCHEMA_LITERAL, dbName, tableName, HiveAvroSerDeManager.SCHEMA_LITERAL));
+    }
+
+    latestSchemaMap.put(tableKey, latestSchema);
     return true;
   }
 
@@ -439,10 +448,14 @@ private void schemaUpdateHelper(GobblinMetadataChangeEvent gmce, HiveSpec spec,
       return;
     }
     //Force to set the schema even there is no schema literal defined in the spec
-    if (latestSchemaMap.containsKey(tableKey)) {
-      spec.getTable().getSerDeProps()
-          .setProp(AvroSerdeUtils.AvroTableProperties.SCHEMA_LITERAL.getPropName(), latestSchemaMap.get(tableKey));
-      HiveMetaStoreUtils.updateColumnsInfoIfNeeded(spec);
+    if (latestSchemaMap.get(tableKey) != null) {
+      String latestSchema = latestSchemaMap.get(tableKey);
+      String tableSchema = spec.getTable().getSerDeProps().getProp(AvroSerdeUtils.AvroTableProperties.SCHEMA_LITERAL.getPropName());
+      if (tableSchema == null || !tableSchema.equals(latestSchema)) {
+        spec.getTable().getSerDeProps()
+            .setProp(AvroSerdeUtils.AvroTableProperties.SCHEMA_LITERAL.getPropName(), latestSchemaMap.get(tableKey));
+        HiveMetaStoreUtils.updateColumnsInfoIfNeeded(spec);
+      }
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/gobblin-iceberg/src/main/java/org/apache/gobblin/iceberg/writer/IcebergMetadataWriter.java b/gobblin-iceberg/src/main/java/org/apache/gobblin/iceberg/writer/IcebergMetadataWriter.java
index e643b1dbb3a..898ec6e6789 100644
--- a/gobblin-iceberg/src/main/java/org/apache/gobblin/iceberg/writer/IcebergMetadataWriter.java
+++ b/gobblin-iceberg/src/main/java/org/apache/gobblin/iceberg/writer/IcebergMetadataWriter.java
@@ -46,9 +46,6 @@
 
 import org.apache.avro.generic.GenericRecord;
 import org.apache.avro.specific.SpecificData;
-
-import org.apache.gobblin.hive.writer.MetadataWriterKeys;
-import org.apache.gobblin.source.extractor.extract.LongWatermark;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
@@ -107,6 +104,7 @@
 import org.apache.gobblin.hive.metastore.HiveMetaStoreUtils;
 import org.apache.gobblin.hive.spec.HiveSpec;
 import org.apache.gobblin.hive.writer.MetadataWriter;
+import org.apache.gobblin.hive.writer.MetadataWriterKeys;
 import org.apache.gobblin.iceberg.Utils.IcebergUtils;
 import org.apache.gobblin.metadata.GobblinMetadataChangeEvent;
 import org.apache.gobblin.metadata.OperationType;
@@ -117,6 +115,7 @@
 import org.apache.gobblin.metrics.event.GobblinEventBuilder;
 import org.apache.gobblin.metrics.kafka.KafkaSchemaRegistry;
 import org.apache.gobblin.metrics.kafka.SchemaRegistryException;
+import org.apache.gobblin.source.extractor.extract.LongWatermark;
 import org.apache.gobblin.stream.RecordEnvelope;
 import org.apache.gobblin.time.TimeIterator;
 import org.apache.gobblin.util.AvroUtils;
@@ -124,6 +123,7 @@
 import org.apache.gobblin.util.HadoopUtils;
 import org.apache.gobblin.util.ParallelRunner;
 import org.apache.gobblin.util.WriterUtils;
+
 import static org.apache.gobblin.iceberg.writer.IcebergMetadataWriterConfigKeys.*;
 
 /**
@@ -488,13 +488,20 @@ private void computeCandidateSchema(GobblinMetadataChangeEvent gmce, TableIdenti
    * @return table with updated schema and partition spec
    */
   private Table addPartitionToIcebergTable(Table table, String fieldName, String type) {
+    boolean isTableUpdated = false;
     if(!table.schema().columns().stream().anyMatch(x -> x.name().equalsIgnoreCase(fieldName))) {
       table.updateSchema().addColumn(fieldName, Types.fromPrimitiveString(type)).commit();
+      isTableUpdated = true;
     }
     if(!table.spec().fields().stream().anyMatch(x -> x.name().equalsIgnoreCase(fieldName))) {
       table.updateSpec().addField(fieldName).commit();
+      isTableUpdated = true;
+    }
+
+    if (isTableUpdated) {
+      table.refresh();
     }
-    table.refresh();
+
     return table;
   }
 
diff --git a/gobblin-iceberg/src/test/java/org/apache/gobblin/iceberg/writer/HiveMetadataWriterTest.java b/gobblin-iceberg/src/test/java/org/apache/gobblin/iceberg/writer/HiveMetadataWriterTest.java
index 392c57f9cc8..dd07b5b0587 100644
--- a/gobblin-iceberg/src/test/java/org/apache/gobblin/iceberg/writer/HiveMetadataWriterTest.java
+++ b/gobblin-iceberg/src/test/java/org/apache/gobblin/iceberg/writer/HiveMetadataWriterTest.java
@@ -22,9 +22,9 @@
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
-
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.function.Function;
+
 import org.apache.avro.SchemaBuilder;
 import org.apache.avro.file.DataFileWriter;
 import org.apache.avro.generic.GenericData;
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@
 import org.apache.avro.io.DatumWriter;
 import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
-import org.apache.gobblin.hive.metastore.HiveMetaStoreBasedRegister;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileSystem;
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
@@ -45,6 +44,7 @@
 import org.apache.iceberg.hive.HiveMetastoreTest;
 import org.apache.iceberg.hive.TestHiveMetastore;
 import org.apache.thrift.TException;
+import org.mockito.Mockito;
 import org.testng.Assert;
 import org.testng.annotations.AfterClass;
 import org.testng.annotations.BeforeClass;
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@
 import org.apache.gobblin.hive.HiveRegister;
 import org.apache.gobblin.hive.HiveRegistrationUnit;
 import org.apache.gobblin.hive.HiveTable;
+import org.apache.gobblin.hive.metastore.HiveMetaStoreBasedRegister;
 import org.apache.gobblin.hive.policy.HiveRegistrationPolicyBase;
 import org.apache.gobblin.hive.spec.HiveSpec;
 import org.apache.gobblin.hive.spec.SimpleHiveSpec;
@@ -83,7 +84,6 @@
 import org.apache.gobblin.util.ClustersNames;
 import org.apache.gobblin.util.ConfigUtils;
 import org.apache.gobblin.util.function.CheckedExceptionFunction;
-import org.mockito.Mockito;
 
 import static org.mockito.Matchers.eq;
 
@@ -389,6 +389,12 @@ public void testUpdateLatestSchemaWithExistingSchema() throws IOException {
     ));
     Assert.assertTrue(updateLatestSchema.apply(tableNameAllowed));
     Mockito.verify(hiveRegister, Mockito.times(2)).getTable(eq(dbName), eq(tableNameAllowed));
+
+    HiveTable tableThatHasNoSchemaLiteral = Mockito.mock(HiveTable.class);
+    String nameOfTableThatHasNoSchemaLiteral = "improperlyConfiguredTable";
+    Mockito.when(hiveRegister.getTable(eq(dbName), eq(nameOfTableThatHasNoSchemaLiteral))).thenReturn(Optional.of(tableThatHasNoSchemaLiteral));
+    Mockito.when(tableThatHasNoSchemaLiteral.getSerDeProps()).thenReturn(new State());
+    Assert.assertThrows(IllegalStateException.class, () -> updateLatestSchema.apply(nameOfTableThatHasNoSchemaLiteral));
   }
 
   private String writeRecord(File file) throws IOException {