diff --git a/python/tests/test_tables.py b/python/tests/test_tables.py
index 1f573b5b94..154b6c0ce4 100644
--- a/python/tests/test_tables.py
+++ b/python/tests/test_tables.py
@@ -825,7 +825,7 @@ def test_bad_offsets(self):
 
     def test_replace_with_wrong_class(self):
         t = self.table_class()
-        with pytest.raises(TypeError, match="wrong type"):
+        with pytest.raises(TypeError, match="is required"):
             t.replace_with(tskit.BaseTable(None, None))
 
 
diff --git a/python/tskit/tables.py b/python/tskit/tables.py
index aa25f762a8..33090b0905 100644
--- a/python/tskit/tables.py
+++ b/python/tskit/tables.py
@@ -591,20 +591,7 @@ def append(self, row):
 
     def replace_with(self, other):
         # Overwrite the contents of this table with a copy of the other table
-        params = {}
-        for column in self.column_names:
-            try:
-                params[column] = getattr(other, column)
-            except AttributeError:
-                raise TypeError(
-                    "Replacement table has wrong type: it lacks a {column} column"
-                )
-        try:
-            # Not all tables have a metadata_schema: if they do, encode it with repr
-            params["metadata_schema"] = repr(other.metadata_schema)
-        except AttributeError:
-            pass
-        self.set_columns(**params)
+        self.set_columns(**other.asdict())
 
     def clear(self):
         """