diff --git a/man/vgremove.8 b/man/vgremove.8
index 997b90f19..0f2d9e9fe 100644
--- a/man/vgremove.8
+++ b/man/vgremove.8
@@ -8,7 +8,10 @@ VolumeGroupName [VolumeGroupName...]
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 vgremove allows you to remove one or more volume groups.
 The volume group(s) must not have any logical volumes allocated:
-Remove them first with \fBlvremove\fP.
+Remove them first with \fBlvremove\fP. If one or more physical
+volumes in the volume group are lost, consider 
+\fBvgreduce --removemissing\fP to make the volume group
+metadata consistent again.
 .SH OPTIONS
 See \fBlvm\fP for common options.
 .SH SEE ALSO
diff --git a/tools/vgremove.c b/tools/vgremove.c
index 1c5553de4..7b85e2078 100644
--- a/tools/vgremove.c
+++ b/tools/vgremove.c
@@ -23,8 +23,11 @@ static int vgremove_single(struct cmd_context *cmd, const char *vg_name,
 	struct pv_list *pvl;
 	int ret = ECMD_PROCESSED;
 
-	if (!vg || !consistent) {
-		log_error("Volume group \"%s\" doesn't exist", vg_name);
+	if (!vg || !consistent || (vg->status & PARTIAL_VG)) {
+		log_error("Volume group \"%s\" not found or inconsistent.",
+			  vg_name);
+		log_error("Consider vgreduce --removemissing if metadata "
+			  "is inconsistent.");
 		return ECMD_FAILED;
 	}
 
@@ -33,12 +36,6 @@ static int vgremove_single(struct cmd_context *cmd, const char *vg_name,
 		return ECMD_FAILED;
 	}
 
-	if (vg->status & PARTIAL_VG) {
-		log_error("Cannot remove partial volume group \"%s\"",
-			  vg->name);
-		return ECMD_FAILED;
-	}
-
 	if (vg->lv_count) {
 		log_error("Volume group \"%s\" still contains %d "
 			  "logical volume(s)", vg_name, vg->lv_count);