diff --git a/keyserver/api/api.go b/keyserver/api/api.go
index 3c9c134ff..1907f4758 100644
--- a/keyserver/api/api.go
+++ b/keyserver/api/api.go
@@ -88,10 +88,7 @@ func (m1 *DeviceMessage) DeviceKeysEqual(m2 *DeviceMessage) (bool, error) {
 	if len(m1.KeyJSON) == 0 && len(m2.KeyJSON) == 0 {
 		return true, nil // both are empty
 	}
-	if len(m1.KeyJSON) == 0 || len(m2.KeyJSON) == 0 {
-		return false, nil // only one is empty
-	}
-	return bytes.Equal(m1.KeyJSON, m2.KeyJSON), nil
+	return bytes.Equal(m1.KeyJSON, m2.KeyJSON) && len(m1.KeyJSON) > 0, nil
 }
 
 // DeviceKeys represents a set of device keys for a single device
diff --git a/keyserver/internal/internal.go b/keyserver/internal/internal.go
index 7eeae5b20..c6f34534f 100644
--- a/keyserver/internal/internal.go
+++ b/keyserver/internal/internal.go
@@ -718,8 +718,8 @@ func emitDeviceKeyChanges(producer KeyChangeProducer, existing, new []api.Device
 		for _, existingKey := range existing {
 			// Do not treat the absence of keys as equal, or else we will not emit key changes
 			// when users delete devices which never had a key to begin with as both KeyJSONs are nil.
-			// if bytes.Equal(existingKey.KeyJSON, newKey.KeyJSON) && len(existingKey.KeyJSON) > 0 {
 			if equal, err := existingKey.DeviceKeysEqual(&newKey); err != nil {
+				// One of the keys was not a DeviceKeys or the user ID/device ID did not match.
 				continue
 			} else if equal {
 				exists = true