diff --git a/platform/vcs-impl/src/com/intellij/openapi/vcs/changes/patch/BinaryPatchWriter.java b/platform/vcs-impl/src/com/intellij/openapi/vcs/changes/patch/BinaryPatchWriter.java
index 9a8f14e7c717..cbf608b299ab 100644
--- a/platform/vcs-impl/src/com/intellij/openapi/vcs/changes/patch/BinaryPatchWriter.java
+++ b/platform/vcs-impl/src/com/intellij/openapi/vcs/changes/patch/BinaryPatchWriter.java
@@ -25,7 +25,10 @@ import com.intellij.util.ArrayUtil;
 import org.jetbrains.annotations.NotNull;
 import org.jetbrains.annotations.Nullable;
 
-import java.io.*;
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.Writer;
 import java.util.List;
 
 import static com.intellij.openapi.vcs.changes.patch.BlobIndexUtil.NOT_COMMITTED_HASH;
@@ -72,8 +75,7 @@ public class BinaryPatchWriter {
       writer.write(String.format(LITERAL_HEADER, afterContent == null ? 0 : afterContent.length));
       writer.write(lineSeparator);
       try {
-        BinaryEncoder
-          .encode(afterFile.exists() ? new FileInputStream(afterFile) : new ByteArrayInputStream(ArrayUtil.EMPTY_BYTE_ARRAY), writer);
+        BinaryEncoder.encode(new ByteArrayInputStream(afterContent != null ? afterContent : ArrayUtil.EMPTY_BYTE_ARRAY), writer);
       }
       catch (BinaryEncoder.BinaryPatchException e) {
         LOG.error("Can't write patch for binary file: " + afterFile.getPath(), e);