diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index a9e21290ae..0e2f177b0b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ git-annex (10.20241203) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
   * Work around git hash-object --stdin-paths's odd stripping of carriage
     return from the end of the line (some windows infection), avoiding
     crashing when the repo contains a filename ending in a carriage return.
+  * Document that settting preferred content to "" is the same as the
+    default unset behavior.
+  * sync: Avoid misleading warning about future preferred content
+    transition when preferred content is set to "".
 
  -- Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>  Mon, 02 Dec 2024 13:41:31 -0400
 
diff --git a/Command/Sync.hs b/Command/Sync.hs
index 1e38211260..c9436778bd 100644
--- a/Command/Sync.hs
+++ b/Command/Sync.hs
@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ import Utility.Bloom
 import Utility.OptParse
 import Utility.Process.Transcript
 import Utility.Tuple
+import Utility.Matcher
 
 import Control.Concurrent.MVar
 import qualified Data.Map as M
@@ -1130,7 +1131,7 @@ warnSyncContentTransition o remotes
 		_ -> do
 			m <- preferredContentMap
 			hereu <- getUUID
-			when (any (`M.member` m) (hereu:map Remote.uuid remotes)) $
+			when (any (preferredcontentconfigured m) (hereu:map Remote.uuid remotes)) $
 				showwarning
   where
 	showwarning = earlyWarning $
@@ -1140,6 +1141,8 @@ warnSyncContentTransition o remotes
 		<> " send any content, use --no-content (or -g)"
 		<> " to prepare for that change."
 		<> " (Or you can configure annex.synccontent)"
+	preferredcontentconfigured m u = 
+		maybe False (not . isEmpty . fst) (M.lookup u m)
 
 notOnlyAnnex :: SyncOptions -> Annex Bool
 notOnlyAnnex o = not <$> onlyAnnex o
diff --git a/doc/forum/Unable_to_delete_preferred-content.log/comment_3_ef3f7b7c14f44b79785ca9ab5b23ca0f._comment b/doc/forum/Unable_to_delete_preferred-content.log/comment_3_ef3f7b7c14f44b79785ca9ab5b23ca0f._comment
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4020bb7a08
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/forum/Unable_to_delete_preferred-content.log/comment_3_ef3f7b7c14f44b79785ca9ab5b23ca0f._comment
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+[[!comment format=mdwn
+ username="joey"
+ subject="""comment 3"""
+ date="2024-12-13T16:52:18Z"
+ content="""
+Ah, you're right that this future change in `git-annex sync` behavior is
+one way that "anything" is different from not configured.
+
+It turns out that you can just use `git-annex wanted here ""` to get back
+the same behavior as the preferred content being unset. I had forgotten
+about that, and it was not really documented anywhere, which I've
+corrected.
+
+Running `git-annex sync` without --content with preferred content set to ""
+currently warns about the transition, but that warning is false. I'm fixing
+it to not warn in this case.
+
+As to the heroic measures, .git/annex/index gets merged into whatever is in
+the git-annex branch, so you need to delete that file as well as rewriting
+the branch. And you need to do this in every single repository that has
+received the unwanted change. And since it also auto-merges git-annex
+branches from remotes, you probably will want to temporarily remove the
+remote tracking branches from git's ref list.
+"""]]
diff --git a/doc/git-annex-preferred-content.mdwn b/doc/git-annex-preferred-content.mdwn
index 908b35a95f..68769484dc 100644
--- a/doc/git-annex-preferred-content.mdwn
+++ b/doc/git-annex-preferred-content.mdwn
@@ -30,6 +30,9 @@ a file matches, the repository wants to store its content. If it doesn't,
 the repository wants to drop its content (if there are enough copies
 elsewhere to allow removing it).
 
+An empty preferred content expression is treated the same as preferred
+content not being configured.
+
 # EXPRESSIONS
 
 * `include=glob` / `exclude=glob`