diff --git a/lisp/window.el b/lisp/window.el
index 036eb271ee..fc4ca303b0 100644
--- a/lisp/window.el
+++ b/lisp/window.el
@@ -6140,7 +6140,8 @@ window--state-put-2
                                        (setq buffer (get-buffer buffer))
                                        (when (buffer-live-p buffer) buffer))
                                      next-buffers))))
-                (when prev-buffers
+                (if (not prev-buffers)
+                    (set-window-prev-buffers window nil)
                   (set-window-prev-buffers
                    window
                    (delq nil (mapcar (lambda (entry)