diff --git a/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/shaded/protobuf/RequestConverter.java b/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/shaded/protobuf/RequestConverter.java
index 46dc98443f4..601dcc58f47 100644
--- a/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/shaded/protobuf/RequestConverter.java
+++ b/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/shaded/protobuf/RequestConverter.java
@@ -590,7 +590,9 @@ public final class RequestConverter {
     if (!multiRequestBuilder.hasNonceGroup() && hasNonce) {
       multiRequestBuilder.setNonceGroup(nonceGroup);
     }
-    multiRequestBuilder.addRegionAction(builder.build());
+    if (builder.getActionCount() > 0) {
+      multiRequestBuilder.addRegionAction(builder.build());
+    }
 
     // Process RowMutations here. We can not process it in the big loop above because
     // it will corrupt the sequence order maintained in cells.