Converter protection, including bridge differential protection and valve short‐circuit protection, frequently malfunctions during the disturbance from an AC system, such as the short‐circuit fault and the inrush current, which severely threatens the safe and stable operation of an AC/DC hybrid power system. This paper analyzes the cause of such maloperation based on mechanism analysis and simulation tests. It is found that saturation of the current transformer in the delta winding of the YD converter transformer during the disturbance of the AC system is the main reason for this sort of maloperation. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a countermeasure by introducing the zero‐sequence circulating current as the restraint current of the bridge differential protection. The time difference between the increase of the zero‐sequence circulating current and the rise of the bridge differential current is utilized to determine whether to apply the proposed countermeasure. Simulation tests indicate that this countermeasure can improve the reliability of the bridge differential protection during the disturbance in the AC system, without affecting the sensitivity and operation speed of the bridge differential protection for the internal fault. © 2017 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.