diff --git a/db/column_family_test.cc b/db/column_family_test.cc
index 9db46c61d9e2a8b08fdb991076633993cf2e5e2e..aaf511b6ebe82c4fa80421eb3e771f3150b09124 100644
--- a/db/column_family_test.cc
+++ b/db/column_family_test.cc
@@ -941,6 +941,12 @@ TEST_F(ColumnFamilyTest, CrashAfterFlush) {
   db_options_.env = env_;
 }
 
+TEST_F(ColumnFamilyTest, OpenNonexistentColumnFamily) {
+  ASSERT_OK(TryOpen({"default"}));
+  Close();
+  ASSERT_TRUE(TryOpen({"default", "dne"}).IsInvalidArgument());
+}
+
 #ifndef ROCKSDB_LITE  // WaitForFlush() is not supported
 // Makes sure that obsolete log files get deleted
 TEST_F(ColumnFamilyTest, DifferentWriteBufferSizes) {
diff --git a/db/db_impl.cc b/db/db_impl.cc
index f202d1fa6dafdca6236e3eb99eb03e41bd198cfa..b2941848a951515ddb44a10c3f3e58f52f169d57 100644
--- a/db/db_impl.cc
+++ b/db/db_impl.cc
@@ -1688,6 +1688,9 @@ Status DBImpl::RecoverLogFiles(const std::vector<uint64_t>& log_numbers,
     }
   }
 
+  // True if there's any data in the WALs; if not, we can skip re-processing
+  // them later
+  bool data_seen = false;
   if (!read_only) {
     // no need to refcount since client still doesn't have access
     // to the DB and can not drop column families while we iterate
@@ -1723,6 +1726,7 @@ Status DBImpl::RecoverLogFiles(const std::vector<uint64_t>& log_numbers,
           cfd->CreateNewMemtable(*cfd->GetLatestMutableCFOptions(),
                                  versions_->LastSequence());
         }
+        data_seen = true;
       }
 
       // write MANIFEST with update
@@ -1748,7 +1752,7 @@ Status DBImpl::RecoverLogFiles(const std::vector<uint64_t>& log_numbers,
     }
   }
 
-  if (!flushed) {
+  if (data_seen && !flushed) {
     // Mark these as alive so they'll be considered for deletion later by
     // FindObsoleteFiles()
     for (auto log_number : log_numbers) {