diff --git a/src/libstore/local-store.cc b/src/libstore/local-store.cc
index e6ba0e6e4e2..ba3637991d0 100644
--- a/src/libstore/local-store.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/local-store.cc
@@ -1140,6 +1140,7 @@ Path LocalStore::addToStore(const string & name, const Path & _srcPath,
 
             if (inMemory) {
                 if (nar.size() + len > settings.narBufferSize) {
+                    printError("warning: adding very large path '%s' to the Nix store", srcPath);
                     inMemory = false;
                     sink << 1;
                     sink((const unsigned char *) nar.data(), nar.size());
diff --git a/src/libutil/serialise.cc b/src/libutil/serialise.cc
index 0e75eeec2bf..df6f0490137 100644
--- a/src/libutil/serialise.cc
+++ b/src/libutil/serialise.cc
@@ -48,24 +48,9 @@ FdSink::~FdSink()
 }
 
 
-size_t threshold = 256 * 1024 * 1024;
-
-static void warnLargeDump()
-{
-    printError("warning: dumping very large path (> 256 MiB); this may run out of memory");
-}
-
-
 void FdSink::write(const unsigned char * data, size_t len)
 {
     written += len;
-    static bool warned = false;
-    if (warn && !warned) {
-        if (written > threshold) {
-            warnLargeDump();
-            warned = true;
-        }
-    }
     try {
         writeFull(fd, data, len);
     } catch (SysError & e) {
@@ -311,11 +296,6 @@ template PathSet readStrings(Source & source);
 
 void StringSink::operator () (const unsigned char * data, size_t len)
 {
-    static bool warned = false;
-    if (!warned && s->size() > threshold) {
-        warnLargeDump();
-        warned = true;
-    }
     s->append((const char *) data, len);
 }