diff --git a/javafx-ui-common/src/javafx/scene/Scene.java b/javafx-ui-common/src/javafx/scene/Scene.java
--- a/javafx-ui-common/src/javafx/scene/Scene.java
+++ b/javafx-ui-common/src/javafx/scene/Scene.java
@@ -1051,7 +1051,10 @@
      */
     @Deprecated
     public Object renderToImage(Object platformImage, float scale) {
-        Toolkit.getToolkit().checkFxUserThread();
+        if (!paused) {
+            Toolkit.getToolkit().checkFxUserThread();
+        }
+
         // NOTE: that we no longer use the passed in platform image. Since this
         // API is deprecated and will be removed in 3.0 this is not a concern.
         // Also, we used to return a TK image loader and now we return