diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/fix-creating-documents.md b/changelog/unreleased/fix-creating-documents.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4206541b40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/fix-creating-documents.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+Bugfix: Fix creating documents in the approvider
+
+We fixed a problem with the approvider where an error was reported to the user even though the file was created properly.
+
+https://github.com/cs3org/reva/pull/4479
diff --git a/internal/http/services/appprovider/appprovider.go b/internal/http/services/appprovider/appprovider.go
index c121657885..2181e98b95 100644
--- a/internal/http/services/appprovider/appprovider.go
+++ b/internal/http/services/appprovider/appprovider.go
@@ -276,9 +276,8 @@ func (s *svc) handleNew(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 		return
 	}
 	defer httpRes.Body.Close()
-	if httpRes.StatusCode == http.StatusForbidden {
+	if httpRes.StatusCode == http.StatusBadRequest {
 		// the file upload was already finished since it is a zero byte file
-		// TODO: why do we get a 401 then!?
 	} else if httpRes.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
 		writeError(w, r, appErrorServerError, "failed to create the file", nil)
 		return
diff --git a/pkg/rhttp/datatx/manager/simple/simple.go b/pkg/rhttp/datatx/manager/simple/simple.go
index a89ce71ecd..6699c9f77a 100644
--- a/pkg/rhttp/datatx/manager/simple/simple.go
+++ b/pkg/rhttp/datatx/manager/simple/simple.go
@@ -93,6 +93,13 @@ func (m *manager) Handler(fs storage.FS) (http.Handler, error) {
 			defer func() {
 				metrics.UploadsActive.Sub(1)
 			}()
+
+			if r.ContentLength == 0 {
+				sublog.Info().Msg("received invalid 0-byte PUT request")
+				w.WriteHeader(http.StatusBadRequest)
+				return
+			}
+
 			fn := r.URL.Path
 			defer r.Body.Close()