diff --git a/src/ssb.db.c b/src/ssb.db.c
index f494912e..0edbf654 100644
--- a/src/ssb.db.c
+++ b/src/ssb.db.c
@@ -148,7 +148,6 @@ void tf_ssb_db_init(tf_ssb_t* ssb)
 			"j.value LIKE '&%.sha256' OR "
 			"j.value LIKE '%%%.sha256' OR "
 			"j.value LIKE '@%.ed25519'; END");
-		_tf_ssb_db_exec(db, "CREATE TRIGGER IF NOT EXISTS messages_ad_refs AFTER DELETE ON messages BEGIN DELETE FROM messages WHERE messages.id = old.message; END");
 		printf("Populating messages_refs...\n");
 		_tf_ssb_db_exec(db, "INSERT INTO messages_refs(message, ref) "
 			"SELECT messages.id, j.value FROM messages, json_each(messages.content) as j WHERE "
@@ -159,6 +158,9 @@ void tf_ssb_db_init(tf_ssb_t* ssb)
 		printf("Done.\n");
 	}
 
+	_tf_ssb_db_exec(db, "DROP TRIGGER IF EXISTS messages_ad_refs");
+	_tf_ssb_db_exec(db, "CREATE TRIGGER IF NOT EXISTS messages_ad_refs AFTER DELETE ON messages BEGIN DELETE FROM messages_refs WHERE messages_refs.message = old.id; END");
+
 	bool need_add_sequence_before_author = true;
 	bool need_convert_timestamp_to_real = false;