diff --git a/src/hb-buffer-serialize.cc b/src/hb-buffer-serialize.cc
index 7839cbc3f..2dc146ab1 100644
--- a/src/hb-buffer-serialize.cc
+++ b/src/hb-buffer-serialize.cc
@@ -282,6 +282,9 @@ hb_buffer_serialize_glyphs (hb_buffer_t *buffer,
   assert ((!buffer->len && buffer->content_type == HB_BUFFER_CONTENT_TYPE_INVALID) ||
 	  buffer->content_type == HB_BUFFER_CONTENT_TYPE_GLYPHS);
 
+  if (!buffer->have_positions)
+    flags |= HB_BUFFER_SERIALIZE_FLAG_NO_POSITIONS;
+
   if (unlikely (start == end))
     return 0;
 
diff --git a/src/hb-ot-layout.cc b/src/hb-ot-layout.cc
index b0257f6b9..6bb4059e5 100644
--- a/src/hb-ot-layout.cc
+++ b/src/hb-ot-layout.cc
@@ -1020,8 +1020,6 @@ inline void hb_ot_map_t::apply (const Proxy &proxy,
 				  buf, sizeof (buf), NULL,
 				  font,
 				  HB_BUFFER_SERIALIZE_FORMAT_TEXT,
-				  Proxy::table_index == 0 ?
-				  HB_BUFFER_SERIALIZE_FLAG_NO_POSITIONS :
 				  HB_BUFFER_SERIALIZE_FLAG_DEFAULT);
       printf ("buf: [%s]\n", buf);
 #endif