diff --git a/resources/sql/patches/20130219.commitsummarymig.php b/resources/sql/patches/20130219.commitsummarymig.php
index a09534ef4..85ed6e34f 100644
--- a/resources/sql/patches/20130219.commitsummarymig.php
+++ b/resources/sql/patches/20130219.commitsummarymig.php
@@ -1,25 +1,31 @@
 <?php
 
 echo "Backfilling commit summaries...\n";
 
-$commits = new LiskMigrationIterator(new PhabricatorRepositoryCommit());
+$table = new PhabricatorRepositoryCommit();
+$conn_w = $table->establishConnection('w');
+$commits = new LiskMigrationIterator($table);
 foreach ($commits as $commit) {
   echo 'Filling Commit #'.$commit->getID()."\n";
 
   if (strlen($commit->getSummary())) {
     continue;
   }
 
   $data = $commit->loadOneRelative(
     new PhabricatorRepositoryCommitData(),
     'commitID');
 
   if (!$data) {
     continue;
   }
 
-  $commit->setSummary($data->getSummary());
-  $commit->save();
+  queryfx(
+    $conn_w,
+    'UPDATE %T SET summary = %s WHERE id = %d',
+    $commit->getTableName(),
+    $data->getSummary(),
+    $commit->getID());
 }
 
 echo "Done.\n";