diff --git a/contrib/fast-import/git-p4 b/contrib/fast-import/git-p4
index 3c44524cdf..d4ddf8dc58 100755
--- a/contrib/fast-import/git-p4
+++ b/contrib/fast-import/git-p4
@@ -1694,7 +1694,9 @@ class P4Sync(Command):
 
                 changes.sort()
             else:
-                if not isinstance(self, P4Clone) and not self.p4BranchesInGit:
+                # catch "git-p4 sync" with no new branches, in a repo that
+                # does not have any existing git-p4 branches
+                if len(args) == 0 and not self.p4BranchesInGit:
                     die("No remote p4 branches.  Perhaps you never did \"git p4 clone\" in here.");
                 if self.verbose:
                     print "Getting p4 changes for %s...%s" % (', '.join(self.depotPaths),