diff --git a/flow-server/src/main/java/com/vaadin/flow/server/frontend/NodeUpdater.java b/flow-server/src/main/java/com/vaadin/flow/server/frontend/NodeUpdater.java
index 0f95e48ecd0..52d51225759 100644
--- a/flow-server/src/main/java/com/vaadin/flow/server/frontend/NodeUpdater.java
+++ b/flow-server/src/main/java/com/vaadin/flow/server/frontend/NodeUpdater.java
@@ -385,6 +385,10 @@ private int handleExistingVaadinDep(JsonObject json, String pkg,
 
         if (added) {
             log().debug("Added \"{}\": \"{}\" line.", pkg, version);
+        } else {
+            // we made a change to the package json vaadin defaults
+            // even if we didn't add to the dependencies.
+            added = !vaadinVersion.isEqualTo(newVersion);
         }
         return added ? 1 : 0;
     }
diff --git a/flow-server/src/main/java/com/vaadin/flow/server/frontend/TaskCreatePackageJson.java b/flow-server/src/main/java/com/vaadin/flow/server/frontend/TaskCreatePackageJson.java
index 1c434ccc5a6..6044145ddb5 100644
--- a/flow-server/src/main/java/com/vaadin/flow/server/frontend/TaskCreatePackageJson.java
+++ b/flow-server/src/main/java/com/vaadin/flow/server/frontend/TaskCreatePackageJson.java
@@ -48,7 +48,9 @@ public void execute() {
             modified = false;
             JsonObject mainContent = getPackageJson();
             modified = updateDefaultDependencies(mainContent);
-            writePackageFile(mainContent);
+            if(modified) {
+                writePackageFile(mainContent);
+            }
         } catch (IOException e) {
             throw new UncheckedIOException(e);
         }
diff --git a/flow-server/src/test/java/com/vaadin/flow/server/frontend/AbstractNodeUpdatePackagesTest.java b/flow-server/src/test/java/com/vaadin/flow/server/frontend/AbstractNodeUpdatePackagesTest.java
index 75691b7e93a..a5adc1c4c2d 100644
--- a/flow-server/src/test/java/com/vaadin/flow/server/frontend/AbstractNodeUpdatePackagesTest.java
+++ b/flow-server/src/test/java/com/vaadin/flow/server/frontend/AbstractNodeUpdatePackagesTest.java
@@ -293,7 +293,7 @@ public void oldVaadinDevDependency_missmatchWithDevDependency_vaadinDependencyIs
         final String version = packageUpdater.getDefaultDevDependencies()
                 .get(key);
         json.getObject(VAADIN_DEP_KEY).getObject(DEV_DEPENDENCIES)
-                .put(key, "4.42.0");
+                .put(key, "3.42.0");
         json.getObject(DEV_DEPENDENCIES).put(key, version);
 
         Files.write(packageJson.toPath(),