diff --git a/hgext/remotefilelog/remotefilelog.py b/hgext/remotefilelog/remotefilelog.py
--- a/hgext/remotefilelog/remotefilelog.py
+++ b/hgext/remotefilelog/remotefilelog.py
@@ -187,7 +187,7 @@
         returns True if text is different than what is stored.
         """
 
-        if node == nullid:
+        if not node or node == nullid:
             return True
 
         nodetext = self.read(node)