diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index b515bea72..f5fcc4fa1 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@ Changes that could break older environments:
 
 Fixed bugs:
 -----------
+* Fixed bug where ant would not perform ftp without remotedir being
+  specified even though this was not mandatory.
 
 * Fixed bug where ant would not copy system properties into new Project
   in ant/antcall tasks when inheritall="false" is set.
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/net/FTP.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/net/FTP.java
index cd9c310a9..c21ee0f85 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/net/FTP.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/optional/net/FTP.java
@@ -603,7 +603,7 @@ public class FTP
 
         FTPFile[] files = ftp.listFiles(remoteFile);
 
-        // For Microsoft's Ftp-Service an Array with length 0 is 
+        // For Microsoft's Ftp-Service an Array with length 0 is
         // returned if configured to return listings in "MS-DOS"-Format
         if (files == null || files.length == 0)
         {
@@ -916,10 +916,9 @@ public class FTP
                                                  "could not change remote directory: " +
                                                  ftp.getReplyString());
                     }
-
-                    log(ACTION_STRS[action] + " files");
-                    transferFiles(ftp);
                 }
+                log(ACTION_STRS[action] + " files");
+                transferFiles(ftp);
             }
 
         }