diff --git a/R/processMetadata.R b/R/processMetadata.R
index 7285ffb..98e3aae 100644
--- a/R/processMetadata.R
+++ b/R/processMetadata.R
@@ -21,6 +21,9 @@
 #' @details
 #' If \code{mcols(x)} has no columns, nothing is saved by \code{.processMcols}.
 #' Similarly, if \code{metadata(x)} is an empty list, nothing is saved by \code{.processMetadata}.
+#'
+#' If \code{mcols(x)} has non-\code{NULL} row names, these are removed prior to staging.
+#' These names are redundant with the names attached to \code{x} itself.
 #' 
 #' @seealso
 #' \code{.restoreMetadata}, which does the loading.
@@ -43,14 +46,20 @@ processMetadata <- function(x, dir, path, meta.name) {
 #' @rdname processMetadata
 #' @importFrom S4Vectors mcols metadata
 processMcols <- function(x, dir, path, mcols.name) {
-    if (!is.null(mcols.name) && !is.null(mcols(x)) && ncol(mcols(x))) {
-        tryCatch({
-            meta <- altStageObject(mcols(x), dir, paste0(path, "/", mcols.name), child=TRUE)
-            list(resource=writeMetadata(meta, dir=dir))
-        }, error=function(e) stop("failed to stage 'mcols(<", class(x)[1], ">)'\n  - ", e$message))
-    } else { 
-        NULL
+    output <- NULL
+
+    if (!is.null(mcols.name)) {
+        mc <- mcols(x, use.names=FALSE)
+        if (!is.null(mc) && ncol(mc)) {
+            rownames(mc) <- NULL # stripping out unnecessary row names.
+            output <- tryCatch({
+                meta <- altStageObject(mc, dir, paste0(path, "/", mcols.name), child=TRUE)
+                list(resource=writeMetadata(meta, dir=dir))
+            }, error=function(e) stop("failed to stage 'mcols(<", class(x)[1], ">)'\n  - ", e$message))
+        }
     }
+
+    return(output)
 }
 
 # Soft-deprecated back-compatibility fixes
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-DataFrame.R b/tests/testthat/test-DataFrame.R
index ac13769..32a424e 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-DataFrame.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-DataFrame.R
@@ -370,23 +370,45 @@ test_that("loaders work correctly from HDF5 with non-default placeholders", {
 })
 
 test_that("stageObject works with extra mcols", {
+    tmp <- tempfile()
+    dir.create(tmp)
+
     df <- DataFrame(A=sample(3, 100, replace=TRUE), B=sample(letters[1:3], 100, replace=TRUE))
+    out <- stageObject(df, tmp, "raw_thing")
+    expect_null(out$data_frame$column_data)
+    expect_null(out$data_frame$other_data)
+
+    # Ignores it when the mcols have no columns.
+    mcols(df) <- make_zero_col_DFrame(2)
+    out <- stageObject(df, tmp, "raw_thing2")
+    expect_null(out$data_frame$column_data)
+    expect_null(out$data_frame$other_data)
+
+    # Alright, adding some mcols.
     mcols(df)$stuff <- runif(ncol(df))
     mcols(df)$foo <- sample(LETTERS, ncol(df), replace=TRUE)
     metadata(df) <- list(WHEE="foo")
 
-    tmp <- tempfile()
-    dir.create(tmp)
     out <- stageObject(df, tmp, "thing")
     expect_false(is.null(out$data_frame$column_data))
     expect_false(is.null(out$data_frame$other_data))
 
-    # Should write without errors.
     resource <- writeMetadata(out, tmp)
     expect_true(file.exists(file.path(tmp, resource$path)))
+    df2 <- loadDataFrame(out, tmp)
+    expect_equal(df, df2)
+
+    # Eliminates redundant row names.
+    mc <- mcols(df)
+    rownames(mc) <- c("C", "D")
+    mcols(df, use.names=FALSE) <- mc
+    out <- stageObject(df, tmp, "thing2")
+    resource <- writeMetadata(out, tmp)
 
     df2 <- loadDataFrame(out, tmp)
     expect_equal(df, df2)
+    mc <- mcols(df2, use.names=FALSE)
+    expect_null(rownames(mc))
 })
 
 test_that("DF staging preserves odd colnames", {