diff --git a/lucene/codecs/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/simpletext/SimpleTextVectorWriter.java b/lucene/codecs/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/simpletext/SimpleTextVectorWriter.java
index e000daa610c..308bd53dfbe 100644
--- a/lucene/codecs/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/simpletext/SimpleTextVectorWriter.java
+++ b/lucene/codecs/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/simpletext/SimpleTextVectorWriter.java
@@ -80,9 +80,7 @@ public class SimpleTextVectorWriter extends VectorWriter {
       docIds.add(docV);
     }
     long vectorDataLength = vectorData.getFilePointer() - vectorDataOffset;
-    if (vectorDataLength > 0) {
-      writeMeta(fieldInfo, vectorDataOffset, vectorDataLength, docIds);
-    }
+    writeMeta(fieldInfo, vectorDataOffset, vectorDataLength, docIds);
   }
 
   private void writeVectorValue(VectorValues vectors) throws IOException {
diff --git a/lucene/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/asserting/AssertingVectorFormat.java b/lucene/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/asserting/AssertingVectorFormat.java
index bae55293d57..836ebc35bc8 100644
--- a/lucene/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/asserting/AssertingVectorFormat.java
+++ b/lucene/test-framework/src/java/org/apache/lucene/codecs/asserting/AssertingVectorFormat.java
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ public class AssertingVectorFormat extends VectorFormat {
       VectorValues values = delegate.getVectorValues(field);
       if (values != null) {
         assert values.docID() == -1;
-        assert values.size() > 0;
+        assert values.size() >= 0;
         assert values.dimension() > 0;
         assert values.similarityFunction() != null;
       }