diff --git a/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/datasetutility/AddReplaceFileHelper.java b/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/datasetutility/AddReplaceFileHelper.java
index ad03bcd550a..1d0ec0f19d9 100644
--- a/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/datasetutility/AddReplaceFileHelper.java
+++ b/src/main/java/edu/harvard/iq/dataverse/datasetutility/AddReplaceFileHelper.java
@@ -1666,7 +1666,7 @@ private boolean step_070_run_update_dataset_command() {
             }
         }
 
-        if (isFileReplaceOperation() && !multifile) {
+        if (isFileReplaceOperation() && deleteFileId!=-1 && !multifile) {
             // Finalize the delete of the physical file
             // (File service will double-check that the datafile no
             // longer exists in the database, before proceeding to