diff --git a/cluster.go b/cluster.go
index 29c4c2164..2843b732f 100644
--- a/cluster.go
+++ b/cluster.go
@@ -1567,8 +1567,7 @@ func (c *cluster) translateIndexKeys(ctx context.Context, indexName string, keys
 	return ids, nil
 }
 
-// This implements ingest's key translator interface on a cluster/index
-// pair.
+// This implements ingest's key translator interface on a cluster/index pair.
 type clusterKeyTranslator struct {
 	ctx       context.Context // we're created within a request context and need to pass that to cluster ops
 	c         *cluster
diff --git a/encoding/proto/proto.go b/encoding/proto/proto.go
index 9a8a262a0..c5672e563 100644
--- a/encoding/proto/proto.go
+++ b/encoding/proto/proto.go
@@ -958,9 +958,6 @@ func (s Serializer) encodeShardedIngestRequest(req *ingest.ShardedRequest) *pb.S
 
 func (s Serializer) encodeShardIngestOperations(ops []*ingest.Operation) *pb.ShardIngestOperations {
 	out := &pb.ShardIngestOperations{}
-	if len(ops) == 0 {
-		return out
-	}
 	for _, op := range ops {
 		if op == nil {
 			continue