diff --git a/java/com/google/copybara/hg/HgDestination.java b/java/com/google/copybara/hg/HgDestination.java
--- a/java/com/google/copybara/hg/HgDestination.java
+++ b/java/com/google/copybara/hg/HgDestination.java
@@ -301,7 +301,7 @@ public class HgDestination implements De
       ChangeMessage msg = getChangeMessage(transformResult, ORIGIN_LABEL_SEPARATOR);
       String date = transformResult.getTimestamp().format(DateTimeFormatter.RFC_1123_DATE_TIME);
 
-      localRepo.hg(localRepo.getHgDir().getParent(), "commit", "--user",
+      localRepo.hg(localRepo.getHgDir().getParent(), "commit", "--config", "experimental.topic-mode=ignore", "--user",
           transformResult.getAuthor().toString(), "--date", date,
           "-m", msg.toString());