diff --git a/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/globals.pl b/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/globals.pl
index 4187060707a..b4d42e94d08 100644
--- a/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/globals.pl
+++ b/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/globals.pl
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ sub ConnectToDatabase {
     my ($useshadow) = (@_);
     if (!defined $::db) {
         my $name = $db_name;
-        if ($useshadow) {
+        if ($useshadow && Param("shadowdb")) {
             $name = Param("shadowdb");
             $::dbwritesallowed = 0;
         }