diff --git a/message/classes/api.php b/message/classes/api.php
index 1554c5a8937..b96006ec14f 100644
--- a/message/classes/api.php
+++ b/message/classes/api.php
@@ -314,6 +314,7 @@ class api {
 
         // This user has no conversations so we can return early here.
         if (empty($conversationrecords)) {
+            $transaction->allow_commit();
             return [];
         }
 
@@ -440,7 +441,7 @@ class api {
         $unreadcounts = $DB->get_records_sql($unreadcountssql, [$userid]);
 
         // We can close off the transaction now.
-        $DB->commit_delegated_transaction($transaction);
+        $transaction->allow_commit();
 
         // Now we need to order the messages back into the same order of the conversations.
         $orderedconvosigs = array_keys($conversationrecords);
diff --git a/message/tests/api_test.php b/message/tests/api_test.php
index 35660fc941e..35d15f5f661 100644
--- a/message/tests/api_test.php
+++ b/message/tests/api_test.php
@@ -333,6 +333,9 @@ class core_message_api_testcase extends core_message_messagelib_testcase {
         // The person doing the search.
         $this->setUser($user1);
 
+        // No conversations yet.
+        $this->assertEquals([], \core_message\api::get_conversations($user1->id));
+
         // Send some messages back and forth, have some different conversations with different users.
         $time = 1;
         $this->send_fake_message($user1, $user2, 'Yo!', 0, $time + 1);