diff --git a/common/CrystalLattice.cpp b/common/CrystalLattice.cpp
index 7a79630ae..b5c225cde 100644
--- a/common/CrystalLattice.cpp
+++ b/common/CrystalLattice.cpp
@@ -200,14 +200,21 @@ CrystalLattice CrystalLattice::FromPrimitive(char centering) const {
     if (centering == 'P')
         return *this;
 
-    return Multiply(gemmi::rot_as_mat33(gemmi::centred_to_primitive(centering)).inverse());
+    // Transposed for the same reason as ToPrimitive below.
+    return Multiply(gemmi::rot_as_mat33(gemmi::centred_to_primitive(centering)).transpose().inverse());
 }
 
 CrystalLattice CrystalLattice::ToPrimitive(char centering) const {
     if (centering == 'P')
         return *this;
 
-    return Multiply(gemmi::rot_as_mat33(gemmi::centred_to_primitive(centering)));
+    // gemmi states the change of basis as an operator on COORDINATES, and Multiply combines BASIS
+    // VECTORS, so the matrix has to be transposed - as it already is everywhere else a gemmi Op::Rot
+    // reaches Multiply. A, B, C, I and F are symmetric, so the transpose is a no-op for them and the
+    // omission never showed; R and H are not, and without it an R-centred lattice was handed back a
+    // "primitive" cell that is not that lattice. Its VOLUME was right either way, which is what hid
+    // this: a determinant does not change under transposition, and most callers only take the volume.
+    return Multiply(gemmi::rot_as_mat33(gemmi::centred_to_primitive(centering)).transpose());
 }
 
 void CrystalLattice::Regularize(const gemmi::CrystalSystem &input) {
diff --git a/docs/CHANGELOG.md b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
index 557ae0886..51799229f 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 * `rugnux` writes the unmerged MTZ `<prefix>_unmerged.mtz` by default; `--no-export-unmerged` skips it.
 * Every rotation run that determines its own space group also writes `<prefix>_P1.mtz`, the same observations merged in P1, so a wrong space group can be re-merged, re-solved or re-refined without processing the images again; `--no-p1-crosscheck` declines it, and a run given `-S` writes nothing because its space group's centring absences were never integrated.
 * The space-group search names the setting the data support, so a screw or a 2-fold on the a or c axis is reported as such instead of costing the crystal its space group.
+* The primitive cell of an R- or H-centred lattice is that lattice: the change of basis was applied without the transposition the convention needs, which left the volume right and the cell wrong, and reached the path that re-seats a lattice into a space group fixed by hand.
 * A centred monoclinic lattice that reduces to the mI form keeps its centring: the character naming that reduced form was missing from the table, so such a cell was reported as triclinic.
 * A lattice keeps the symmetry it has whatever orientation it was refined in: the cell reduction now judges a structurally-zero scalar product against the size of the cell rather than against a fixed tolerance eight decades smaller, so a body-centred tetragonal lattice is no longer read as C-centred monoclinic on most rotations of itself.
 * A run whose cell metric admits more rotational symmetry than the space group it adopted says so, naming both, so a symmetry the intensities were too weak to confirm is visible rather than silent.
diff --git a/tests/LatticeSearchTest.cpp b/tests/LatticeSearchTest.cpp
index 216e8201e..bd2fcecfc 100644
--- a/tests/LatticeSearchTest.cpp
+++ b/tests/LatticeSearchTest.cpp
@@ -574,3 +574,25 @@ TEST_CASE("LatticeSearch - a centred monoclinic lattice that reduces to the mI f
     CHECK(std::fabs(res.conventional.CalcVolume())
           == Catch::Approx(2 * std::fabs(L.CalcVolume())).epsilon(1e-4));
 }
+
+// The change of basis to a primitive cell is stated by gemmi as an operator on COORDINATES, while
+// CrystalLattice::Multiply combines BASIS VECTORS, so it has to be transposed. A, B, C, I and F are
+// symmetric and never showed the omission; R and H are not. An R-centred lattice is the case that
+// matters, because it is the centring whose setting most often has to be re-seated.
+TEST_CASE("CrystalLattice::ToPrimitive gives an R-centred lattice its rhombohedral primitive cell") {
+    const double a = 50.0, c = 120.0;
+    const CrystalLattice hex(a, a, c, 90, 90, 120);
+    const auto prim = hex.ToPrimitive('R').GetUnitCell();
+    // A rhombohedral primitive cell: three equal edges, three equal angles, a third of the volume.
+    CHECK(prim.a == Catch::Approx(prim.b).epsilon(1e-5));
+    CHECK(prim.b == Catch::Approx(prim.c).epsilon(1e-5));
+    CHECK(prim.alpha == Catch::Approx(prim.beta).epsilon(1e-5));
+    CHECK(prim.beta == Catch::Approx(prim.gamma).epsilon(1e-5));
+    CHECK(std::fabs(hex.ToPrimitive('R').CalcVolume())
+          == Catch::Approx(std::fabs(hex.CalcVolume()) / 3.0).epsilon(1e-4));
+    // ...and it goes back to the hexagonal cell it came from.
+    const auto back = hex.ToPrimitive('R').FromPrimitive('R').GetUnitCell();
+    CHECK(back.a == Catch::Approx(a).epsilon(1e-4));
+    CHECK(back.c == Catch::Approx(c).epsilon(1e-4));
+    CHECK(back.gamma == Catch::Approx(120.0).epsilon(1e-4));
+}