diff --git a/Sources/SharingGRDBCore/CloudKit/SyncEngine.swift b/Sources/SharingGRDBCore/CloudKit/SyncEngine.swift
index f78e26dc..047a5cce 100644
--- a/Sources/SharingGRDBCore/CloudKit/SyncEngine.swift
+++ b/Sources/SharingGRDBCore/CloudKit/SyncEngine.swift
@@ -339,7 +339,7 @@
       previousRecordTypeByTableName: [String: RecordType],
       currentRecordTypeByTableName: [String: RecordType]
     ) async throws {
-      let pendingRecordZoneChanges = try await userDatabase.read { db in
+      let pendingRecordZoneChanges = try await metadatabase.read { db in
         try PendingRecordZoneChange
           .select(\.pendingRecordZoneChange)
           .fetchAll(db)
diff --git a/Sources/SharingGRDBCore/Internal/UserDatabase.swift b/Sources/SharingGRDBCore/Internal/UserDatabase.swift
index 95299501..3fd2e24f 100644
--- a/Sources/SharingGRDBCore/Internal/UserDatabase.swift
+++ b/Sources/SharingGRDBCore/Internal/UserDatabase.swift
@@ -31,9 +31,7 @@ package struct UserDatabase {
     _ updates: @Sendable (Database) throws -> T
   ) async throws -> T {
     try await database.read { db in
-      try SyncEngine.$_isSynchronizingChanges.withValue(true) {
-        try updates(db)
-      }
+      try updates(db)
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/Tests/SharingGRDBTests/CloudKitTests/UnattachedSyncEngineTests.swift b/Tests/SharingGRDBTests/CloudKitTests/UnattachedSyncEngineTests.swift
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ae726da1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Tests/SharingGRDBTests/CloudKitTests/UnattachedSyncEngineTests.swift
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+import CloudKit
+import CustomDump
+import InlineSnapshotTesting
+import SharingGRDB
+import SnapshotTestingCustomDump
+import Testing
+
+extension BaseCloudKitTests {
+  @MainActor
+  final class UnattachedSyncEngineTests: @unchecked Sendable {
+    @available(iOS 17, macOS 14, tvOS 17, watchOS 10, *)
+    @Test func start() async throws {
+      let database = try DatabasePool(path: "\(NSTemporaryDirectory())\(UUID())")
+      _ = try await SyncEngine(
+        container: MockCloudContainer(
+          containerIdentifier: "iCloud.co.pointfree.Testing",
+          privateCloudDatabase: MockCloudDatabase(databaseScope: .private),
+          sharedCloudDatabase: MockCloudDatabase(databaseScope: .shared)
+        ),
+        userDatabase: UserDatabase(database: database),
+        tables: []
+      )
+    }
+  }
+}