diff --git a/scripts/rpm-upgrade.sh b/scripts/rpm-upgrade.sh
index 8904ea6ea..0dc5b254d 100755
--- a/scripts/rpm-upgrade.sh
+++ b/scripts/rpm-upgrade.sh
@@ -138,13 +138,25 @@ if [[ $package_version == "$old_version" ]]; then
   exit
 fi
 
-# //TEMP upgrade does not work without this but why? Can't we fix it?
-if [[ "$test_type" =~ ^(major|distro)$ ]]; then
-  bb_log_info "remove old packages for major upgrade"
-  packages_to_remove=$(rpm -qa | grep -E '^(MariaDB|mariadb)-' | awk -F'-' '{print $1"-"$2}')
-  echo "$packages_to_remove" | xargs sudo "$pkg_cmd" "$pkg_cmd_options" remove
-  rpm -qa | grep -iE 'maria|mysql' || true
+# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# --                          MDBF-1121 / MDEV-33459                          --
+# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+# Major upgrades within the same family (>10) and vendor (!=distro)
+# should work without removing old packages first.
+
+old_family=$(echo "$prev_major_version" | sed -n -e 's,^\([1-9][0-9]*\)\..*$,\1,p')
+new_family=$(echo "$major_version" | sed -n -e 's,^\([1-9][0-9]*\)\..*$,\1,p')
+
+if [[ "$test_type" == "distro" ||
+      ( "$old_family" -lt 11 && "$test_type" != "minor" ) ||
+      "$old_family" -ne "$new_family" ]]; then
+    bb_log_info "remove old packages for major upgrade"
+    packages_to_remove=$(rpm -qa | grep -E '^(MariaDB|mariadb)-' | awk -F'-' '{print $1"-"$2}')
+    echo "$packages_to_remove" | xargs sudo "$pkg_cmd" "$pkg_cmd_options" remove
+    rpm -qa | grep -iE 'maria|mysql' || true
 fi
+# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 rpm_setup_bb_galera_artifacts_mirror
 rpm_setup_bb_artifacts_mirror