diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 5e3c1de24e61b542e428b34451031a94b6f7fb0d..67284d2fc4aff88a6914c5aad51d92eff8acab17 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -312,6 +312,7 @@ documents those changes that are of interest to users and admins.
 ========================
  -- Fix sinfo to work correctly with draining/mixed nodes as well as filtering
     on Mixed state.
+ -- Fix sacctmgr update user with no "where" condition.
 
 * Changes in Slurm 2.6.8
 ========================
diff --git a/src/sacctmgr/user_functions.c b/src/sacctmgr/user_functions.c
index b0222bf85b077292e99d83d9d68d4ef7737ae8d0..7fbdcd45e1da5600d69168cd5e58e626b567ff9c 100644
--- a/src/sacctmgr/user_functions.c
+++ b/src/sacctmgr/user_functions.c
@@ -1695,6 +1695,13 @@ extern int sacctmgr_modify_user(int argc, char *argv[])
 
 	user_cond->assoc_cond = xmalloc(sizeof(slurmdb_association_cond_t));
 	user_cond->assoc_cond->cluster_list = list_create(slurm_destroy_char);
+	/* We need this to make sure we only change users, not
+	 * accounts if this list didn't exist it would change
+	 * accounts. Having it blank is fine, it just needs to
+	 * exist.  This also happens in _set_cond, but that doesn't
+	 * always happen.
+	 */
+	user_cond->assoc_cond->user_list = list_create(slurm_destroy_char);
 
 	for (i=0; i<argc; i++) {
 		int command_len = strlen(argv[i]);