diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/InsertIntoHiveTable.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/InsertIntoHiveTable.scala
index 12c667e6e92d..5b617b3ea9d0 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/InsertIntoHiveTable.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/InsertIntoHiveTable.scala
@@ -87,33 +87,35 @@ case class InsertIntoHiveTable(
 
     // Note that this function is executed on executor side
     def writeToFile(context: TaskContext, iterator: Iterator[InternalRow]): Unit = {
-      val serializer = newSerializer(fileSinkConf.getTableInfo)
-      val standardOI = ObjectInspectorUtils
-        .getStandardObjectInspector(
-          fileSinkConf.getTableInfo.getDeserializer.getObjectInspector,
-          ObjectInspectorCopyOption.JAVA)
-        .asInstanceOf[StructObjectInspector]
-
-      val fieldOIs = standardOI.getAllStructFieldRefs.map(_.getFieldObjectInspector).toArray
-      val dataTypes: Array[DataType] = child.output.map(_.dataType).toArray
-      val wrappers = fieldOIs.zip(dataTypes).map { case (f, dt) => wrapperFor(f, dt)}
-      val outputData = new Array[Any](fieldOIs.length)
-
-      writerContainer.executorSideSetup(context.stageId, context.partitionId, context.attemptNumber)
-
-      iterator.foreach { row =>
-        var i = 0
-        while (i < fieldOIs.length) {
-          outputData(i) = if (row.isNullAt(i)) null else wrappers(i)(row.get(i, dataTypes(i)))
-          i += 1
+      if (iterator.hasNext) {
+        val serializer = newSerializer(fileSinkConf.getTableInfo)
+        val standardOI = ObjectInspectorUtils
+          .getStandardObjectInspector(
+            fileSinkConf.getTableInfo.getDeserializer.getObjectInspector,
+            ObjectInspectorCopyOption.JAVA)
+          .asInstanceOf[StructObjectInspector]
+
+        val fieldOIs = standardOI.getAllStructFieldRefs.map(_.getFieldObjectInspector).toArray
+        val dataTypes: Array[DataType] = child.output.map(_.dataType).toArray
+        val wrappers = fieldOIs.zip(dataTypes).map { case (f, dt) => wrapperFor(f, dt)}
+        val outputData = new Array[Any](fieldOIs.length)
+
+        writerContainer.executorSideSetup(context.stageId, context.partitionId, context.attemptNumber)
+
+        iterator.foreach { row =>
+          var i = 0
+          while (i < fieldOIs.length) {
+            outputData(i) = if (row.isNullAt(i)) null else wrappers(i)(row.get(i, dataTypes(i)))
+            i += 1
+          }
+
+          writerContainer
+            .getLocalFileWriter(row, table.schema)
+            .write(serializer.serialize(outputData, standardOI))
         }
 
-        writerContainer
-          .getLocalFileWriter(row, table.schema)
-          .write(serializer.serialize(outputData, standardOI))
+        writerContainer.close()
       }
-
-      writerContainer.close()
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/InsertIntoHiveTableSuite.scala b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/InsertIntoHiveTableSuite.scala
index d33e81227db8..64db73cbd3b9 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/InsertIntoHiveTableSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/InsertIntoHiveTableSuite.scala
@@ -262,4 +262,30 @@ class InsertIntoHiveTableSuite extends QueryTest with BeforeAndAfter {
 
     sql("DROP TABLE table_with_partition")
   }
+
+  test("SPARK-10216: Avoid creating empty files during overwrite into Hive table with group by query") {
+    val testData = TestHive.sparkContext.parallelize(
+      (1 to 2).map(i => TestData(i, i.toString))).toDF()
+    testData.registerTempTable("testData")
+
+    val tmpDir = Utils.createTempDir()
+    sql(
+      s"""
+         |CREATE TABLE table1(key int,value string)
+         |location '${tmpDir.toURI.toString}'
+       """.stripMargin)
+    sql(
+      """
+        |INSERT OVERWRITE TABLE table1
+        |SELECT count(key), value FROM testData GROUP BY value
+      """.stripMargin)
+    def listFiles(path: File): List[File] = {
+      val file = path.listFiles()
+      file.filter { e => e.isFile && !e.getName.endsWith(".crc")}.toList
+    }
+    val fileList = listFiles(tmpDir)
+    assert(fileList.filter(e => e.length > 0).sortBy(_.getName) === fileList.sortBy(_.getName))
+
+    sql("DROP TABLE table1")
+  }
 }