diff --git a/doc/bugs/sync_command_tries_to_connect_new_remote_despite_not_being_asked_to.mdwn b/doc/bugs/sync_command_tries_to_connect_new_remote_despite_not_being_asked_to.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..014288d5fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/bugs/sync_command_tries_to_connect_new_remote_despite_not_being_asked_to.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+### Please describe the problem.
+When adding a new remote which is not accessible (hence still unsynced) git annex tries to connect to it at each remote operation, even if a specific other remote is given for the command.
+
+### What steps will reproduce the problem?
+<pre>
+git init 1
+
+cd 1
+git annex init
+touch file
+git annex add file
+git commit -m"a file"
+
+git clone . ../2
+
+git remote add 2 ../2
+git annex sync 2
+</pre>
+At this point annex syncs with remote "2" and nothing else
+
+But if adding a (currently) unaccessible remote
+<pre>
+git remote add bad nobody@offline.local:nothing
+git annex sync 2
+</pre>
+gives
+<pre>
+ssh: Could not resolve hostname offline.local: Name or service not known
+ssh: Could not resolve hostname offline.local: Name or service not known
+fatal: Could not read from remote repository.
+
+Please make sure you have the correct access rights
+and the repository exists.
+commit  ok
+pull 2 
+ok
+push 2 
+Everything up-to-date
+ok
+</pre>
+so annex tries to sync with the "bad" remote, even though the command tells it to only sync from "2". I would expect it to only sync with remote "2" in this case.
+### What version of git-annex are you using? On what operating system?
+git-annex version: 5.20131221
+Debian Sid
diff --git a/doc/bugs/sync_command_tries_to_connect_new_remote_despite_not_being_asked_to/comment_1_dcd52b57192e83fe365f21dc12461008._comment b/doc/bugs/sync_command_tries_to_connect_new_remote_despite_not_being_asked_to/comment_1_dcd52b57192e83fe365f21dc12461008._comment
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..57b70b47c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/bugs/sync_command_tries_to_connect_new_remote_despite_not_being_asked_to/comment_1_dcd52b57192e83fe365f21dc12461008._comment
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+[[!comment format=mdwn
+ username="http://joeyh.name/"
+ ip="209.250.56.227"
+ subject="comment 1"
+ date="2013-12-27T18:03:11Z"
+ content="""
+git-annex needs to know the uuid of a remote in order to operate. So at startup, if there is a remote that does not have an annex.uuid set, nearly any git-annex command will try to connect the the remote and query it for its uuid.
+
+To prevent this being done for a remote, `git config remote.bad.annex-ignore true`
+"""]]
diff --git a/doc/bugs/unable_to_sync_complains_of_missing_git-upload_and_receive_pack.mdwn b/doc/bugs/unable_to_sync_complains_of_missing_git-upload_and_receive_pack.mdwn
index fb642ece37..ed8904db46 100644
--- a/doc/bugs/unable_to_sync_complains_of_missing_git-upload_and_receive_pack.mdwn
+++ b/doc/bugs/unable_to_sync_complains_of_missing_git-upload_and_receive_pack.mdwn
@@ -163,3 +163,40 @@ git                 lib
 git-annex           libdirs
 """]]
 
+
+
+
+
+### After some debugging with Joey...
+12:24 <     joeyh> git does not use annex-ssh-options
+12:24 <     joeyh> the way the assistant sets this up is it makes up a new hostname, and in .ssh/config, makes that hostname use the real domain name, and the key
+12:25 <     joeyh> there's clearly a bug here.. the assistant only does that when there is no passwordless ssh key already set up. But in this wacky way of installing git and git-annex on a server, it needs to always do it
+12:26 <     joeyh> probably the assistant should probe if ssh server git-receive-pack works, and if not, always set up its special config
+12:26 <     joeyh> alternatively, the standalone tarball could have an actual installation step, rather than just being unpacked
+
+Based on that I added (on the amd64/rose machine):
+[[!format sh """
+greg@rose:~/.ssh$ cat config
+Host synology
+    HostName yep.org #obviously redacted
+    IdentityFile /home/greg/.ssh/annex.rose_rsa
+
+$ git remote show -n synology
+* remote synology
+  Fetch URL: greg@synology:/volume1/photo/
+  Push  URL: greg@synology:/volume1/photo/
+  HEAD branch: (not queried)
+  Local ref configured for 'git push' (status not queried):
+    (matching) pushes to (matching)
+"""]]
+
+Now, to do a simple test with git:
+
+[[!format sh """
+$ git remote show synology
+git-annex-shell: git-shell failed
+fatal: Could not read from remote repository.
+
+Please make sure you have the correct access rights
+and the repository exists.
+"""]]