diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index c6123601..45f57cb3 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
    Apprise library. See the documentation for more information:
    https://torsion.org/borgmatic/docs/how-to/monitor-your-backups/#apprise-hook
  * #768: Fix a traceback when an invalid command-line flag or action is used.
+ * #771: Fix normalization of deprecated sections ("location:", "storage:", "hooks:", etc.) to
+   support empty sections without erroring.
 
 1.8.3
  * #665: BREAKING: Simplify logging logic as follows: Syslog verbosity is now disabled by
diff --git a/borgmatic/config/normalize.py b/borgmatic/config/normalize.py
index 5fb02d88..1198bb5a 100644
--- a/borgmatic/config/normalize.py
+++ b/borgmatic/config/normalize.py
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ def normalize_sections(config_filename, config):
     for section_name in ('location', 'storage', 'retention', 'consistency', 'output', 'hooks'):
         section_config = config.get(section_name)
 
-        if section_config:
+        if section_config is not None:
             any_section_upgraded = True
             del config[section_name]
             config.update(section_config)
diff --git a/tests/unit/config/test_normalize.py b/tests/unit/config/test_normalize.py
index 6a9d640b..ebe68746 100644
--- a/tests/unit/config/test_normalize.py
+++ b/tests/unit/config/test_normalize.py
@@ -77,6 +77,11 @@ from borgmatic.config import normalize as module
             {'bar': 'baz', 'prefix': 'foo'},
             True,
         ),
+        (
+            {'location': {}, 'consistency': {'prefix': 'foo'}},
+            {'prefix': 'foo'},
+            True,
+        ),
         (
             {},
             {},