diff --git a/Annex/Branch.hs b/Annex/Branch.hs
index dce16667d7..9acfe6935d 100644
--- a/Annex/Branch.hs
+++ b/Annex/Branch.hs
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ import Data.ByteString.Builder
 import Control.Concurrent (threadDelay)
 import Control.Concurrent.MVar
 import qualified System.FilePath.ByteString as P
+import System.PosixCompat.Files (isRegularFile)
 
 import Annex.Common hiding (append)
 import Types.BranchState
@@ -726,13 +727,14 @@ stageJournal jl commitindex = withIndex $ withOtherTmp $ \tmpdir -> do
 	genstream dir h jh jlogh streamer = readDirectory jh >>= \case
 		Nothing -> return ()
 		Just file -> do
-			unless (dirCruft file) $ do
-				let path = dir P.</> toRawFilePath file
+			let path = dir P.</> toRawFilePath file
+			unless (dirCruft file) $ whenM (isfile path) $ do
 				sha <- Git.HashObject.hashFile h path
 				hPutStrLn jlogh file
 				streamer $ Git.UpdateIndex.updateIndexLine
 					sha TreeFile (asTopFilePath $ fileJournal $ toRawFilePath file)
 			genstream dir h jh jlogh streamer
+	isfile file = isRegularFile <$> R.getFileStatus file
 	-- Clean up the staged files, as listed in the temp log file.
 	-- The temp file is used to avoid needing to buffer all the
 	-- filenames in memory.
diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index e7113df01c..d1ad4dcc35 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+git-annex (10.20230927) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
+
+  * Ignore directories and other unusual files in .git/annex/journal/
+
+ -- Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>  Tue, 10 Oct 2023 13:17:31 -0400
+
 git-annex (10.20230926) upstream; urgency=medium
 
   * Fix more breakage caused by git's fix for CVE-2022-24765, this time
diff --git a/doc/bugs/encountering_fatal_error_on_auto_annex_upgrade.mdwn b/doc/bugs/encountering_fatal_error_on_auto_annex_upgrade.mdwn
index 5233023ee3..93cbcec6f4 100644
--- a/doc/bugs/encountering_fatal_error_on_auto_annex_upgrade.mdwn
+++ b/doc/bugs/encountering_fatal_error_on_auto_annex_upgrade.mdwn
@@ -93,3 +93,4 @@ git-annex: fd:17: Data.ByteString.hGetLine: end of file
 
 Yes, it's one of my favourite opensource tools.
 
+> [[fixed|done]] --[[Joey]]
diff --git a/doc/bugs/encountering_fatal_error_on_auto_annex_upgrade/comment_5_28d35ef30f76ec326363d86ab2948ad3._comment b/doc/bugs/encountering_fatal_error_on_auto_annex_upgrade/comment_5_28d35ef30f76ec326363d86ab2948ad3._comment
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..abf36c782f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/bugs/encountering_fatal_error_on_auto_annex_upgrade/comment_5_28d35ef30f76ec326363d86ab2948ad3._comment
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+[[!comment format=mdwn
+ username="joey"
+ subject="""comment 5"""
+ date="2023-10-10T17:00:37Z"
+ content="""
+Reproduced as follows:
+
+	joey@darkstar:~/tmp/bench>git init  --bare dav
+	Initialized empty Git repository in /home/joey/tmp/bench/dav/
+	joey@darkstar:~/tmp/bench>cd dav
+	joey@darkstar:~/tmp/bench/dav>git-annex init --version=9
+	init  ok
+	(recording state in git...)
+	joey@darkstar:~/tmp/bench/dav>for s in $(find -type d); do mkdir $s/.DAV;done
+	joey@darkstar:~/tmp/bench/dav>git-annex init --version=9
+	init  fatal: Unable to add (null) to database
+
+So it's these empty directories indeed. (Empty .DAV files don't cause this.)
+
+In particular, it's any empty directory in .git/annex/journal. Which is
+supposed to only contain files that git-annex wrote there. Staging the journal
+is why git hash-object gets involved.
+
+	mkdir .DAV
+	echo .DAV | git hash-object -w --stdin-paths
+	fatal: Unable to add .DAV to database
+
+Still unclear why git ends up with "(null)" in the error message.
+
+While it will slow git-annex down a tiny bit to check if it's a regular file,
+it seems better for git-annex to be robust against this kind of pollution.
+"""]]