diff --git a/builtin/shortlog.c b/builtin/shortlog.c
index adbf1fd99..e32be3993 100644
--- a/builtin/shortlog.c
+++ b/builtin/shortlog.c
@@ -149,13 +149,6 @@ void shortlog_add_commit(struct shortlog *log, struct commit *commit)
 	ctx.output_encoding = get_log_output_encoding();
 
 	format_commit_message(commit, "%an <%ae>", &author, &ctx);
-	/* we can detect a total failure only by seeing " <>" in the output */
-	if (author.len <= 3) {
-		warning(_("Missing author: %s"),
-		    oid_to_hex(&commit->object.oid));
-		goto out;
-	}
-
 	if (!log->summary) {
 		if (log->user_format)
 			pretty_print_commit(&ctx, commit, &oneline);
@@ -165,7 +158,6 @@ void shortlog_add_commit(struct shortlog *log, struct commit *commit)
 
 	insert_one_record(log, author.buf, oneline.len ? oneline.buf : "<none>");
 
-out:
 	strbuf_release(&author);
 	strbuf_release(&oneline);
 }
diff --git a/t/t4201-shortlog.sh b/t/t4201-shortlog.sh
index 82b231451..f5e63670f 100755
--- a/t/t4201-shortlog.sh
+++ b/t/t4201-shortlog.sh
@@ -178,22 +178,6 @@ test_expect_success !MINGW 'shortlog encoding' '
 	git shortlog HEAD~2.. > out &&
 test_cmp expect out'
 
-test_expect_success 'shortlog ignores commits with missing authors' '
-	git commit --allow-empty -m normal &&
-	git commit --allow-empty -m soon-to-be-broken &&
-	git cat-file commit HEAD >commit.tmp &&
-	sed "/^author/d" commit.tmp >broken.tmp &&
-	commit=$(git hash-object -w -t commit --stdin <broken.tmp) &&
-	git update-ref HEAD $commit &&
-	cat >expect <<-\EOF &&
-	A U Thor (1):
-	      normal
-
-	EOF
-	git shortlog HEAD~2.. >actual &&
-	test_cmp expect actual
-'
-
 test_expect_success 'shortlog with revision pseudo options' '
 	git shortlog --all &&
 	git shortlog --branches &&