diff --git a/static/js/message_store.js b/static/js/message_store.js
index 248fa16d27..7f4425c40a 100644
--- a/static/js/message_store.js
+++ b/static/js/message_store.js
@@ -302,14 +302,15 @@ exports.update_messages = function update_messages(events) {
         alert_words.process_message(msg);
     });
 
-    // If a topic was edited, we re-render the whole view to get any propagated edits
-    // to be updated
+    // If a topic was edited, we re-render the whole view to get any
+    // propagated edits to be updated (since the topic edits can have
+    // changed the correct grouping of messages).
     if (topic_edited) {
-        if (!changed_narrow) {
-            home_msg_list.rerender();
-            if (current_msg_list === message_list.narrowed) {
-                message_list.narrowed.rerender();
-            }
+        home_msg_list.rerender();
+        // However, we don't need to rerender message_list.narrowed if
+        // we just changed the narrow earlier in this function.
+        if (!changed_narrow && current_msg_list === message_list.narrowed) {
+            message_list.narrowed.rerender();
         }
     } else {
         home_msg_list.view.rerender_messages(msgs_to_rerender);