diff --git a/pkg/registry/apis/provisioning/resources/dualwriter.go b/pkg/registry/apis/provisioning/resources/dualwriter.go
index 052771af700..62f4ffd3b98 100644
--- a/pkg/registry/apis/provisioning/resources/dualwriter.go
+++ b/pkg/registry/apis/provisioning/resources/dualwriter.go
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ func (r *DualReadWriter) Delete(ctx context.Context, opts DualWriteOptions) (*Pa
 	}
 
 	// HACK: manual set to the provided branch so that the parser can possible read the file
-	if r.shouldUpdateGrafanaDB(opts, nil) {
+	if !r.shouldUpdateGrafanaDB(opts, nil) {
 		file.Ref = opts.Ref
 	}