diff --git a/src/controller/replication/flow/stage.go b/src/controller/replication/flow/stage.go
index 803d6cc2600..6290218e556 100644
--- a/src/controller/replication/flow/stage.go
+++ b/src/controller/replication/flow/stage.go
@@ -159,10 +159,6 @@ func getResourceName(res *model.Resource) string {
 // repository:a/b/c/image namespace:n replaceCount: 3 -> n/image
 // repository:a/b/c/image namespace:n replaceCount: 4 -> error
 func replaceNamespace(repository string, namespace string, replaceCount int8, dstRepoComponentPathType string) (string, error) {
-	if len(namespace) == 0 {
-		return repository, nil
-	}
-
 	srcRepoPathComponents := strings.Split(repository, "/")
 	srcLength := len(srcRepoPathComponents)
 
@@ -174,6 +170,8 @@ func replaceNamespace(repository string, namespace string, replaceCount int8, ds
 		return "", errors.New(nil).WithCode(errors.BadRequestCode).
 			WithMessage("the source repository %q contains only %d path components %v excepting the last one, but the destination namespace flattening level is %d",
 				repository, srcLength-1, srcRepoPathComponents[:srcLength-1], replaceCount)
+	case len(namespace) == 0:
+		dstRepoPrefix = strings.Join(srcRepoPathComponents[replaceCount:srcLength-1], "/")
 	default:
 		dstRepoPrefix = namespace + "/" + strings.Join(srcRepoPathComponents[replaceCount:srcLength-1], "/")
 	}
diff --git a/src/controller/replication/flow/stage_test.go b/src/controller/replication/flow/stage_test.go
index 7e9536d626c..824645252ff 100644
--- a/src/controller/replication/flow/stage_test.go
+++ b/src/controller/replication/flow/stage_test.go
@@ -116,20 +116,12 @@ func (s *stageTestSuite) TestAssembleDestinationResources() {
 }
 
 func (s *stageTestSuite) TestReplaceNamespace() {
-	// empty namespace
+	// replace count <0, repository contains no "/"
 	var (
-		repository   string = "c"
-		namespace    string = ""
-		replaceCount int8   = 0
+		repository = "c"
+		namespace = "n"
+		replaceCount = -1
 	)
-	result, err := replaceNamespace(repository, namespace, replaceCount, "")
-	s.Require().Nil(err)
-	s.Equal("c", result)
-
-	// replace count <0, repository contains no "/"
-	repository = "c"
-	namespace = "n"
-	replaceCount = -1
 	result, err = replaceNamespace(repository, namespace, replaceCount, "")
 	s.Require().Nil(err)
 	s.Equal("n/c", result)
@@ -195,6 +187,54 @@ func (s *stageTestSuite) TestReplaceNamespace() {
 	result, err = replaceNamespace(repository, namespace, replaceCount, "")
 	s.Require().Nil(err)
 	s.Equal("n/a", result)
+
+	// replace count = 0 with empty namespace
+	repository = "a/b/c"
+	namespace = ""
+	replaceCount = 0
+	result, err = replaceNamespace(repository, namespace, replaceCount, "")
+	s.Require().Nil(err)
+	s.Equal("a/b/c", result)
+	
+	// replace count = 1 with empty namespace
+	repository = "a/b/c"
+	namespace = ""
+	replaceCount = 1
+	result, err = replaceNamespace(repository, namespace, replaceCount, "")
+	s.Require().Nil(err)
+	s.Equal("b/c", result)
+
+	// replace count = 2 with empty namespace
+	repository = "a/b/c"
+	namespace = ""
+	replaceCount = 2
+	result, err = replaceNamespace(repository, namespace, replaceCount, "")
+	s.Require().Nil(err)
+	s.Equal("c", result)
+
+	// replace count <0, repository contains no "/" with empty namespace
+	repository = "c"
+	namespace = ""
+	replaceCount = -1
+	result, err = replaceNamespace(repository, namespace, replaceCount, "")
+	s.Require().Nil(err)
+	s.Equal("c", result)
+
+	// replace count <0, repository contains only one "/" with empty namespace
+	repository = "b/c"
+	namespace = ""
+	replaceCount = -1
+	result, err = replaceNamespace(repository, namespace, replaceCount, "")
+	s.Require().Nil(err)
+	s.Equal("c", result)
+
+	// replace count <0, repository contains more than one "/" with empty namespace
+	repository = "a/b/c"
+	namespace = ""
+	replaceCount = -1
+	result, err = replaceNamespace(repository, namespace, replaceCount, "")
+	s.Require().Nil(err)
+	s.Equal("c", result)
 }
 
 func TestStage(t *testing.T) {