diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a1a4c27650b..3d8101f713e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 ### 6.2-SNAPSHOT
 
 #### Bugs
+* Fix #4478: Removing the resourceVersion bump with null status 
 * Fix #4369: Informers will retry with a backoff on list/watch failure as they did in 5.12 and prior.
 * Fix #4350: SchemaSwap annotation is now repeatable and is applied multiple times if classes are used more than once in the class hierarchy.
 * Fix #3733: The authentication command from the .kube/config won't be discarded if no arguments are specified
diff --git a/junit/kubernetes-server-mock/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/server/mock/crud/PatchHandler.java b/junit/kubernetes-server-mock/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/server/mock/crud/PatchHandler.java
index a3bba34b44f..544d808ca64 100644
--- a/junit/kubernetes-server-mock/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/server/mock/crud/PatchHandler.java
+++ b/junit/kubernetes-server-mock/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/server/mock/crud/PatchHandler.java
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ public MockResponse handle(String path, String contentType, String requestBody)
     final JsonNode updatedResource;
     if (isStatusPath(path)) {
       updatedResource = currentResource.deepCopy();
-      setStatus(updatedResource, fullPatch.path(STATUS));
+      setStatus(updatedResource, fullPatch.get(STATUS));
     } else {
       updatedResource = fullPatch;
       // preserve original status (PATCH requests to the custom resource ignore changes to the status stanza)
diff --git a/junit/kubernetes-server-mock/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/server/mock/crud/PutHandler.java b/junit/kubernetes-server-mock/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/server/mock/crud/PutHandler.java
index 774cbe92162..47d456938d7 100644
--- a/junit/kubernetes-server-mock/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/server/mock/crud/PutHandler.java
+++ b/junit/kubernetes-server-mock/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/server/mock/crud/PutHandler.java
@@ -48,12 +48,12 @@ public MockResponse handle(String path, String contentType, String requestBody)
     final JsonNode updatedResource;
     if (isStatusPath(path)) {
       updatedResource = currentResource.deepCopy();
-      setStatus(updatedResource, persistence.asNode(requestBody).path(STATUS));
+      setStatus(updatedResource, persistence.asNode(requestBody).get(STATUS));
     } else {
       updatedResource = persistence.asNode(requestBody);
       // preserve original status (PUT requests to the custom resource ignore changes to the status stanza)
       if (persistence.isStatusSubresourceEnabledForResource(path)) {
-        setStatus(updatedResource, currentResource.path(STATUS));
+        setStatus(updatedResource, currentResource.get(STATUS));
       }
     }
     validatePath(attributes, updatedResource);
diff --git a/kubernetes-tests/src/test/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/mock/CustomResourceCrudTest.java b/kubernetes-tests/src/test/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/mock/CustomResourceCrudTest.java
index 8f75d6bbed7..ee0c0b4cc14 100644
--- a/kubernetes-tests/src/test/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/mock/CustomResourceCrudTest.java
+++ b/kubernetes-tests/src/test/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/mock/CustomResourceCrudTest.java
@@ -195,6 +195,30 @@ void testStatusPatch() {
     assertNotNull(result.getStatus());
   }
 
+  @Test
+  void testNullStatus() {
+    CronTab cronTab = createCronTab("my-new-cron-object", "* * * * */5", 3, "my-awesome-cron-image");
+
+    NonNamespaceOperation<CronTab, KubernetesResourceList<CronTab>, Resource<CronTab>> cronTabClient = client
+        .resources(CronTab.class).inNamespace("test-ns");
+
+    CronTab result = cronTabClient.resource(cronTab).create();
+
+    // should be null after create
+    assertNull(result.getStatus());
+    String resourceVersion = result.getMetadata().getResourceVersion();
+
+    // should be a no-op
+    result = cronTabClient.resource(result).patchStatus();
+    assertNull(result.getStatus());
+    assertEquals(resourceVersion, result.getMetadata().getResourceVersion());
+
+    // should be a no-op
+    result = cronTabClient.resource(result).replace();
+    assertNull(result.getStatus());
+    assertEquals(resourceVersion, result.getMetadata().getResourceVersion());
+  }
+
   void assertCronTab(CronTab cronTab, String name, String cronTabSpec, int replicas, String image) {
     assertEquals(name, cronTab.getMetadata().getName());
     assertEquals(cronTabSpec, cronTab.getSpec().getCronSpec());