diff --git a/vector/src/index/hnsw_index.cpp b/vector/src/index/hnsw_index.cpp
index cd5d2300..100a7ad1 100644
--- a/vector/src/index/hnsw_index.cpp
+++ b/vector/src/index/hnsw_index.cpp
@@ -804,6 +804,9 @@ std::unique_ptr<Index::UpdateState> OnDiskHNSWIndex::initUpdateState(main::Clien
 void OnDiskHNSWIndex::update(Transaction* transaction, const common::ValueVector& nodeIDVector,
     common::ValueVector& propertyVector, UpdateState& updateState) {
     auto& hnswUpdateState = updateState.cast<HNSWUpdateState>();
+    // NOTE: The node table has already been updated with the new value when we get here
+    // (NodeTable::update applies the table update before updating indexes), so any embedding
+    // scanned from the node table during re-insertion is the new value.
     commitInsert(transaction, nodeIDVector, {&propertyVector}, *hnswUpdateState.insertState);
 }
 
@@ -1427,7 +1430,11 @@ void OnDiskHNSWIndex::shrinkForNode(Transaction* transaction, common::offset_t o
     const auto approxMetricFunc = embeddings.getMetricFunction(config.metric);
     auto& embeddingScanState = *insertState.searchState.embeddingScanState;
     const auto vector = embeddings.getEmbedding(offset, embeddingScanState);
-    DASSERT(!vector.isNull());
+    if (vector.isNull()) {
+        // The node has no embedding (e.g. its embedding was updated to NULL while it is still
+        // referenced in the graph). We cannot compute distances, so we skip shrinking.
+        return;
+    }
     const auto& searchState = insertState.searchState;
     const auto& graph = isUpperLayer ? searchState.upperGraph : searchState.lowerGraph;
     const auto relTableID = isUpperLayer ? storageInfo->cast<HNSWStorageInfo>().upperRelTableID :
diff --git a/vector/test/test_files/update.test b/vector/test/test_files/update.test
index d6b1e04d..c963cd66 100644
--- a/vector/test/test_files/update.test
+++ b/vector/test/test_files/update.test
@@ -188,3 +188,76 @@ Binder exception: Cannot set property id in table embeddings because it is used
 1
 2
 3
+
+-CASE UpdateNullEmbeddingRowAtIndexBuild
+-LOAD_DYNAMIC_EXTENSION vector
+-STATEMENT CREATE NODE TABLE embeddings (id int64, vec FLOAT[8], PRIMARY KEY (id));
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT CALL threads=1;
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT UNWIND range(0, 499) AS i CREATE (:embeddings {id: i, vec: [i * 0.001, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8]});
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT UNWIND range(500, 549) AS i CREATE (:embeddings {id: i});
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT CALL CREATE_VECTOR_INDEX('embeddings', 'e_hnsw_index', 'vec', metric := 'l2');
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT MATCH (t:embeddings) WHERE t.id = 500 SET t.vec = [0.35, 0.25, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8];
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT MATCH (t:embeddings) WHERE t.id = 550 SET t.vec = [0.9, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8];
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT CALL QUERY_VECTOR_INDEX('embeddings', 'e_hnsw_index', [0.35, 0.25, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8], 1, efs := 50) RETURN node.id ORDER BY distance;
+---- 1
+500
+
+-CASE UpdateNullEmbeddingToNullAndBack
+-LOAD_DYNAMIC_EXTENSION vector
+-STATEMENT CREATE NODE TABLE embeddings (id int64, vec FLOAT[8], PRIMARY KEY (id));
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT CALL threads=1;
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT UNWIND range(0, 499) AS i CREATE (:embeddings {id: i, vec: [i * 0.001, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8]});
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT UNWIND range(500, 549) AS i CREATE (:embeddings {id: i, vec: [i * 0.002, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8]});
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT CALL CREATE_VECTOR_INDEX('embeddings', 'e_hnsw_index', 'vec', metric := 'l2');
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT MATCH (t:embeddings) WHERE t.id = 500 SET t.vec = NULL;
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT MATCH (t:embeddings) WHERE t.id = 501 SET t.vec = [1.5, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8];
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT MATCH (t:embeddings) WHERE t.id = 500 SET t.vec = [1.5, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8];
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT CALL QUERY_VECTOR_INDEX('embeddings', 'e_hnsw_index', [1.5, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8], 2, efs := 50) RETURN node.id ORDER BY distance;
+-CHECK_ORDER
+---- 2
+500
+501
+
+-CASE UpdateNullEmbeddingSurvivesCheckpointReopen
+-SKIP_IN_MEM
+-LOAD_DYNAMIC_EXTENSION vector
+-STATEMENT CREATE NODE TABLE embeddings (id int64, vec FLOAT[8], PRIMARY KEY (id));
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT CALL threads=1;
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT UNWIND range(0, 499) AS i CREATE (:embeddings {id: i, vec: [i * 0.001, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8]});
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT UNWIND range(500, 549) AS i CREATE (:embeddings {id: i});
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT CALL CREATE_VECTOR_INDEX('embeddings', 'e_hnsw_index', 'vec', metric := 'l2');
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT CHECKPOINT;
+---- ok
+-RELOADDB
+-LOAD_DYNAMIC_EXTENSION vector
+-STATEMENT MATCH (t:embeddings) WHERE t.id = 500 SET t.vec = [0.35, 0.25, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8];
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT MATCH (t:embeddings) WHERE t.id = 510 SET t.vec = [0.51, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8];
+---- ok
+-STATEMENT CHECKPOINT;
+---- ok
+-RELOADDB
+-LOAD_DYNAMIC_EXTENSION vector
+-STATEMENT CALL QUERY_VECTOR_INDEX('embeddings', 'e_hnsw_index', [0.35, 0.25, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8], 1, efs := 50) RETURN node.id ORDER BY distance;
+---- 1
+500