diff --git a/contrib/fast-import/git-p4 b/contrib/fast-import/git-p4
index efec0be32c..36fe69a795 100755
--- a/contrib/fast-import/git-p4
+++ b/contrib/fast-import/git-p4
@@ -907,10 +907,6 @@ class P4Sync(Command):
             return p [p.strip().rfind("/") + 1:]
 
     def getBranchMapping(self):
-
-        ## FIXME - what's a P4 projectName ?
-        self.projectName = self.guessProjectName()
-
         for info in p4CmdList("branches"):
             details = p4Cmd("branch -o %s" % info["branch"])
             viewIdx = 0
@@ -1141,7 +1137,11 @@ class P4Sync(Command):
             self.getLabels();
 
         if self.detectBranches:
-            self.getBranchMapping();
+            ## FIXME - what's a P4 projectName ?
+            self.projectName = self.guessProjectName()
+
+            if not self.hasOrigin:
+                self.getBranchMapping();
             if self.verbose:
                 print "p4-git branches: %s" % self.p4BranchesInGit
                 print "initial parents: %s" % self.initialParents