diff --git a/pkg/meta/model/job_args.go b/pkg/meta/model/job_args.go
index c63a8c9fa7..1c62c726d9 100644
--- a/pkg/meta/model/job_args.go
+++ b/pkg/meta/model/job_args.go
@@ -766,14 +766,21 @@ type TableColumnArgs struct {
 	IgnoreExistenceErr bool `json:"ignore_existence_err,omitempty"`
 
 	// for drop column.
-	// below 2 fields are filled during running.
+	// below 2 fields are filled during running, and PartitionIDs is only effective
+	// when len(IndexIDs) > 0.
 	IndexIDs     []int64 `json:"index_ids,omitempty"`
 	PartitionIDs []int64 `json:"partition_ids,omitempty"`
 }
 
 func (a *TableColumnArgs) getArgsV1(job *Job) []any {
 	if job.Type == ActionDropColumn {
-		return []any{a.Col.Name, a.IgnoreExistenceErr, a.IndexIDs, a.PartitionIDs}
+		// if this job is submitted by new version node, but run with older version
+		// node, older node will try to append args at runtime, so we check it here
+		// to make sure the appended args can be decoded.
+		if len(a.IndexIDs) > 0 {
+			return []any{a.Col.Name, a.IgnoreExistenceErr, a.IndexIDs, a.PartitionIDs}
+		}
+		return []any{a.Col.Name, a.IgnoreExistenceErr}
 	}
 	return []any{a.Col, a.Pos, a.Offset, a.IgnoreExistenceErr}
 }
diff --git a/pkg/meta/model/job_args_test.go b/pkg/meta/model/job_args_test.go
index 984df03e51..cf0d5ae369 100644
--- a/pkg/meta/model/job_args_test.go
+++ b/pkg/meta/model/job_args_test.go
@@ -904,7 +904,16 @@ func TestDropColumnArgs(t *testing.T) {
 		args, err := GetTableColumnArgs(j2)
 		require.NoError(t, err)
 		require.Equal(t, inArgs, args)
+		if v == JobVersion1 {
+			require.Len(t, j2.args, 4)
+		}
 	}
+
+	j2 := &Job{}
+	require.NoError(t, j2.Decode(getJobBytes(t, &TableColumnArgs{Col: &ColumnInfo{}}, JobVersion1, ActionDropColumn)))
+	var rawArgs []json.RawMessage
+	require.NoError(t, json.Unmarshal(j2.RawArgs, &rawArgs))
+	require.Len(t, rawArgs, 2)
 }
 
 func TestAddColumnArgs(t *testing.T) {