diff --git a/lisp/vc/vc.el b/lisp/vc/vc.el
index 14378a85346..5b58b68dc9b 100644
--- a/lisp/vc/vc.el
+++ b/lisp/vc/vc.el
@@ -1426,9 +1426,8 @@ To apply VC operations to multiple files, the files must be in similar VC states
 (defun vc-next-action (verbose)
   "Do the next logical version control operation on the current fileset.
 This requires that all files in the current VC fileset be in the
-same state.  If they are not, signal an error.  Also signal an error if
-files in the fileset are missing (removed, but tracked by version control),
-or are ignored by the version control system.
+sufficiently similar states.  If they are not, signal an error.
+Also signal an error if files in the fileset are ignored by the VCS.
 
 For modern merging-based version control systems:
   If every file in the fileset is not registered for version
@@ -1489,8 +1488,6 @@ from which to check out the file(s)."
 
     ;; Do the right thing.
     (cond
-     ((eq state 'missing)
-      (error "Fileset files are missing, so cannot be operated on"))
      ((eq state 'ignored)
       (error "Fileset files are ignored by the version-control system"))
      ;; Fileset comes from a diff-mode buffer, see
@@ -1503,6 +1500,8 @@ from which to check out the file(s)."
                (vc-register (cons backend (cdr vc-fileset)))))
             (t
              (vc-register vc-fileset))))
+     ((eq state 'missing)
+      (mapc #'vc-delete-file files))
      ;; Files are up-to-date, or need a merge and user specified a revision
      ((or (eq state 'up-to-date) (and verbose (eq state 'needs-update)))
       (cond