diff --git a/image_analysis/scale_merge/SearchSpaceGroup.cpp b/image_analysis/scale_merge/SearchSpaceGroup.cpp
index 3b99f6e3e..59eb289eb 100644
--- a/image_analysis/scale_merge/SearchSpaceGroup.cpp
+++ b/image_analysis/scale_merge/SearchSpaceGroup.cpp
@@ -1900,9 +1900,14 @@ SearchSpaceGroupResult SearchSpaceGroup(
     // the point group is one only a non-reference setting carries (Stage A's second pass), since
     // otherwise there is no candidate at all and the group would be lost after being found. These are
     // alternative namings at the same order, so nothing here can promote the point group; what they
-    // add is a screw or a centering on the axis the data show it on. Two refusals bound them: a
-    // setting whose axes the cell does not have is not offered, and one predicting exactly the
-    // absences a candidate already offered predicts is the same hypothesis under another name.
+    // add is a screw or a centering on the axis the data show it on. One refusal bounds them: a setting
+    // predicting exactly the absences a candidate already offered predicts is the same hypothesis
+    // under another name. The cell is NOT asked again here: a setting of the chosen rotation set holds
+    // the very rotations the reference candidates hold, so it fits the cell exactly as well as they
+    // do - and they are offered without asking. Asking only the non-reference ones turned a free-
+    // refined cell a few tenths of a degree off 90 into a refusal of every setting but the reference
+    // one, leaving the group with the measured screws on a and c (P 2_1 2 2_1) unoffered and P2_12_12_1
+    // the only candidate that covered both.
     if (opt.cell.has_value() &&
         (opt.enumerate_all_settings || (opt.enumerate_all_rotation_sets && sg_cands.empty()))) {
         std::vector<std::vector<char>> signatures;
@@ -1910,8 +1915,7 @@ SearchSpaceGroupResult SearchSpaceGroup(
             signatures.push_back(AbsenceSignature(*c));
         for (const auto& sg : gemmi::spacegroup_tables::main) {
             if (!sg.is_sohncke() || sg.is_reference_setting() ||
-                RotationSetOf(sg) != best_pg->rotation_set ||
-                !CellHostsRotations(*opt.cell, sg.operations()))
+                RotationSetOf(sg) != best_pg->rotation_set)
                 continue;
             auto sig = AbsenceSignature(sg);
             if (std::find(signatures.begin(), signatures.end(), sig) != signatures.end())
diff --git a/tests/SearchSpaceGroupTest.cpp b/tests/SearchSpaceGroupTest.cpp
index 88123bdd3..59b912021 100644
--- a/tests/SearchSpaceGroupTest.cpp
+++ b/tests/SearchSpaceGroupTest.cpp
@@ -444,6 +444,17 @@ TEST_CASE("SearchSpaceGroup names an orthorhombic screw pair on the axes it lies
         REQUIRE(result.best_space_group.has_value());
         CHECK(result.best_space_group->xhm() == "P 2 21 21");
     }
+
+    // A cell refined free after integration is a few tenths of a degree off 90. The reference
+    // candidates hold the same rotations and are offered on it, so the other settings must be too.
+    SECTION("a free cell a few tenths off 90 still offers it") {
+        opt.cell = gemmi::UnitCell(40.0, 50.0, 60.0, 90.32, 90.19, 90.19);
+        opt.enumerate_all_settings = true;
+        const auto result = SearchSpaceGroup(merged, opt);
+        INFO(SearchSpaceGroupResultToText(result));
+        REQUIRE(result.best_space_group.has_value());
+        CHECK(result.best_space_group->xhm() == "P 2 21 21");
+    }
 }
 
 // A screw on a row the sweep never recorded is not a group the data refused, it is a question