diff --git a/src/SharedMemoryAccess.cpp b/src/SharedMemoryAccess.cpp
index 456e47b..7e12c69 100644
--- a/src/SharedMemoryAccess.cpp
+++ b/src/SharedMemoryAccess.cpp
@@ -63,23 +63,25 @@ void writeSharedMemory(char *data, int size, int offset) {
 }
 
 char *getSharedMemory() {
-    constexpr bool useLocal = false;
+    bool useLocal = false;
 
-    if(useLocal){
+    if(!useLocal){
+        int shmId = shmget(impl.sharedMemoryKey, NULL, 0);
+        if(shmId < 0) {
+            //no shared memory found
+            useLocal = true;
+        } else {
+            return (char *) shmat(shmId, NULL, 0);
+        }
+    }
+
+    if(useLocal) {
         //using a local buffer for shared memory testing
         if (localSharedMemory.empty()) {
             initSemaphore();
             localSharedMemory.resize(impl.sharedMemorySize * 1024);
         }
         return &localSharedMemory[0];
-    }else {
-        int shmId = shmget(impl.sharedMemoryKey, NULL, 0);
-        if(shmId < 0) {
-            // we could return -1, not sure if it will be useful to continue after there is no shm allocated for any reason
-            return nullptr;
-        } else {
-            return (char *) shmat(shmId, NULL, 0);
-        }
     }
 }