diff --git a/src/spyglass/spikesorting/v0/spikesorting_curation.py b/src/spyglass/spikesorting/v0/spikesorting_curation.py
index e3c0a6fd6..acdebe352 100644
--- a/src/spyglass/spikesorting/v0/spikesorting_curation.py
+++ b/src/spyglass/spikesorting/v0/spikesorting_curation.py
@@ -513,10 +513,13 @@ class QualityMetrics(SpyglassMixin, dj.Computed):
     """
 
     def make(self, key):
-        key["analysis_file_name"] = AnalysisNwbfile().create(  # logged
+        analysis_file_name = AnalysisNwbfile().create(  # logged
             key["nwb_file_name"]
         )
         waveform_extractor = Waveforms().load_waveforms(key)
+        key["analysis_file_name"] = (
+            analysis_file_name  # add to key here to prevent fetch errors
+        )
         qm = {}
         params = (MetricParameters & key).fetch1("metric_params")
         for metric_name, metric_params in params.items():