diff --git a/share/completions/rclone.fish b/share/completions/rclone.fish
index 9b9ada6c8..bec43b3bb 100644
--- a/share/completions/rclone.fish
+++ b/share/completions/rclone.fish
@@ -1,10 +1,14 @@
-set -l rclone_version (rclone version | string match -rg 'rclone v?(.*)' | string split .)
-or return
-
-# Yes, rclone's parsing here has changed, now they *require* a `-` argument
-# where previously they required *not* having it.
-if test "$rclone_version[1]" -gt 1; or test "$rclone_version[2]" -gt 62
-    rclone completion fish - 2>/dev/null | source
+if set -l rclone_version (rclone version | string match -rg 'rclone v?(.*)' | string split .) &&
+        test "$rclone_version[1]" -lt 1 ||
+        test "$rclone_version[1]" -eq 1 &&
+        test "$rclone_version[2]" -le 62
+  # version is definitely <= 1.62, adding a `-` would be an error
+  rclone completion fish
 else
-    rclone completion fish 2>/dev/null | source
-end
+  # For newer versions, this requires an `-`. Without a `-`, it would
+  # try to write to /etc/completions/fish.
+  # If we can't determine the version, assume a recent one. An error
+  # is better than trying to write to /etc unexpectedly.
+  rclone completion fish -
+end 2>/dev/null | source
+