diff --git a/changelog.d/5282.doc b/changelog.d/5282.doc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..350e15bc033e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/5282.doc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix docs on resetting the user directory.
diff --git a/docs/sample_config.yaml b/docs/sample_config.yaml
index 421ae96f04f1..edfde05a2323 100644
--- a/docs/sample_config.yaml
+++ b/docs/sample_config.yaml
@@ -1103,9 +1103,9 @@ password_config:
 #
 # 'search_all_users' defines whether to search all users visible to your HS
 # when searching the user directory, rather than limiting to users visible
-# in public rooms.  Defaults to false.  If you set it True, you'll have to run
-# UPDATE user_directory_stream_pos SET stream_id = NULL;
-# on your database to tell it to rebuild the user_directory search indexes.
+# in public rooms.  Defaults to false.  If you set it True, you'll have to
+# rebuild the user_directory search indexes, see
+# https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/master/docs/user_directory.md
 #
 #user_directory:
 #  enabled: true
diff --git a/docs/user_directory.md b/docs/user_directory.md
index 4c8ee44f37c0..e64aa453cc0b 100644
--- a/docs/user_directory.md
+++ b/docs/user_directory.md
@@ -7,11 +7,7 @@ who are present in a publicly viewable room present on the server.
 
 The directory info is stored in various tables, which can (typically after
 DB corruption) get stale or out of sync.  If this happens, for now the
-quickest solution to fix it is:
-
-```
-UPDATE user_directory_stream_pos SET stream_id = NULL;
-```
-
-and restart the synapse, which should then start a background task to
+solution to fix it is to execute the SQL here
+https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/master/synapse/storage/schema/delta/53/user_dir_populate.sql
+and then restart synapse. This should then start a background task to
 flush the current tables and regenerate the directory.
diff --git a/synapse/config/user_directory.py b/synapse/config/user_directory.py
index 142754a7dc63..023997ccdeb2 100644
--- a/synapse/config/user_directory.py
+++ b/synapse/config/user_directory.py
@@ -43,9 +43,9 @@ def default_config(self, config_dir_path, server_name, **kwargs):
         #
         # 'search_all_users' defines whether to search all users visible to your HS
         # when searching the user directory, rather than limiting to users visible
-        # in public rooms.  Defaults to false.  If you set it True, you'll have to run
-        # UPDATE user_directory_stream_pos SET stream_id = NULL;
-        # on your database to tell it to rebuild the user_directory search indexes.
+        # in public rooms.  Defaults to false.  If you set it True, you'll have to
+        # rebuild the user_directory search indexes, see
+        # https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/master/docs/user_directory.md
         #
         #user_directory:
         #  enabled: true