diff --git a/builtin/am.c b/builtin/am.c
index 2fc2d1e82c..1494a9be84 100644
--- a/builtin/am.c
+++ b/builtin/am.c
@@ -1596,6 +1596,7 @@ static int fall_back_threeway(const struct am_state *state, const char *index_pa
 	o.branch1 = "HEAD";
 	their_tree_name = xstrfmt("%.*s", linelen(state->msg), state->msg);
 	o.branch2 = their_tree_name;
+	o.detect_directory_renames = 0;
 
 	if (state->quiet)
 		o.verbosity = 0;
diff --git a/t/t3401-rebase-and-am-rename.sh b/t/t3401-rebase-and-am-rename.sh
index 887bed5396..e0b5111993 100755
--- a/t/t3401-rebase-and-am-rename.sh
+++ b/t/t3401-rebase-and-am-rename.sh
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ test_expect_success 'rebase --interactive: NO directory rename' '
 	)
 '
 
-test_expect_failure 'rebase (am): NO directory rename' '
+test_expect_success 'rebase (am): NO directory rename' '
 	test_when_finished "git -C no-dir-rename rebase --abort" &&
 	(
 		cd no-dir-rename &&
@@ -190,7 +190,7 @@ test_expect_success 'rebase --merge: NO directory rename' '
 	)
 '
 
-test_expect_failure 'am: NO directory rename' '
+test_expect_success 'am: NO directory rename' '
 	test_when_finished "git -C no-dir-rename am --abort" &&
 	(
 		cd no-dir-rename &&