diff --git a/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.Tests.MultiNode/ClusterShardingRememberEntitiesNewExtractorSpec.cs b/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.Tests.MultiNode/ClusterShardingRememberEntitiesNewExtractorSpec.cs
index e70bd5c1ea3..5c407a67d43 100644
--- a/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.Tests.MultiNode/ClusterShardingRememberEntitiesNewExtractorSpec.cs
+++ b/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.Tests.MultiNode/ClusterShardingRememberEntitiesNewExtractorSpec.cs
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ class = ""Akka.Cluster.Sharding.Tests.MemoryJournalShared, Akka.Cluster.Sharding
                         timeout = 5s
                     }}
                     akka.cluster.sharding.state-store-mode = ""{mode}""
+                    akka.cluster.sharding.distributed-data.durable.keys = [""shard-*""]
                     akka.cluster.sharding.distributed-data.durable.lmdb {{
                       dir = ""target/ClusterShardingMinMembersSpec/sharding-ddata""
                       map-size = 10000000
diff --git a/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.Tests.MultiNode/ClusterShardingRememberEntitiesSpec.cs b/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.Tests.MultiNode/ClusterShardingRememberEntitiesSpec.cs
index b5a9be629f9..d636d40ad90 100644
--- a/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.Tests.MultiNode/ClusterShardingRememberEntitiesSpec.cs
+++ b/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.Tests.MultiNode/ClusterShardingRememberEntitiesSpec.cs
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ class = ""Akka.Cluster.Sharding.Tests.MemoryJournalShared, Akka.Cluster.Sharding
                         timeout = 5s
                     }}
                     akka.cluster.sharding.state-store-mode = ""{mode}""
+                    akka.cluster.sharding.distributed-data.durable.keys = [""shard-*""]
                     akka.cluster.sharding.distributed-data.durable.lmdb {{
                       dir = ""target/ClusterShardingMinMembersSpec/sharding-ddata""
                       map-size = 10000000
diff --git a/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.Tests/ClusterShardingConfigSpec.cs b/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.Tests/ClusterShardingConfigSpec.cs
index 7b086ad4361..5fb4196c0a7 100644
--- a/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.Tests/ClusterShardingConfigSpec.cs
+++ b/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.Tests/ClusterShardingConfigSpec.cs
@@ -62,6 +62,8 @@ public void Should_cluster_sharding_settings_have_default_config()
             Assert.Equal(string.Empty, singletonConfig.GetString("role"));
             Assert.Equal(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1), singletonConfig.GetTimeSpan("hand-over-retry-interval"));
             Assert.Equal(15, singletonConfig.GetInt("min-number-of-hand-over-retries"));
+            
+            Assert.Empty(config.GetStringList("distributed-data.durable.keys"));
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.csproj b/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.csproj
index 8234137e52c..4f0eb91fa7b 100644
--- a/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.csproj
+++ b/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding/Akka.Cluster.Sharding.csproj
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@
     <ProjectReference Include="..\..\..\core\Akka.Coordination\Akka.Coordination.csproj" />
     <ProjectReference Include="..\..\..\core\Akka.Persistence\Akka.Persistence.csproj" />
     <ProjectReference Include="..\Akka.Cluster.Tools\Akka.Cluster.Tools.csproj" />
-    <ProjectReference Include="..\Akka.DistributedData.LightningDB\Akka.DistributedData.LightningDB.csproj" />
     <ProjectReference Include="..\Akka.DistributedData\Akka.DistributedData.csproj" />
   </ItemGroup>
 
diff --git a/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding/reference.conf b/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding/reference.conf
index 9f3e31d0a19..516372ef967 100644
--- a/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding/reference.conf
+++ b/src/contrib/cluster/Akka.Cluster.Sharding/reference.conf
@@ -184,8 +184,10 @@ akka.cluster.sharding {
   distributed-data {
     # minCap parameter to MajorityWrite and MajorityRead consistency level.
     majority-min-cap = 5
-
-    durable.keys = ["shard-*"]
+    
+    # Uncomment this line if you want to use the durable version of DData and make sure that
+    # you also reference the Akka.DistributedData.LightningDB nuget package.
+    # durable.keys = ["shard-*"]
 
     # When using many entities with "remember entities" the Gossip message
     # can become to large if including to many in same message. Limit to