diff --git a/CHANGES/3484.bugfix b/CHANGES/3484.bugfix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f87d9fe70
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CHANGES/3484.bugfix
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix publications created by mirror_complete syncs not having checksum_type set properly.
diff --git a/pulp_rpm/app/migrations/0060_rpmpublication_compression_type_empty.py b/pulp_rpm/app/migrations/0060_rpmpublication_compression_type_empty.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..86b974ee9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pulp_rpm/app/migrations/0060_rpmpublication_compression_type_empty.py
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# Generated by Django 4.2.5 on 2023-11-07 03:51
+
+from django.db import migrations, models
+
+
+def set_publication_checksum(apps, schema_editor):
+    RpmPublication = apps.get_model("rpm", "RpmPublication")
+    RpmPublication.objects.filter(checksum_type="").update(checksum_type="unknown")
+
+
+class Migration(migrations.Migration):
+
+    dependencies = [
+        ('rpm', '0059_rpmpublication_compression_type_and_more'),
+    ]
+
+    operations = [
+        migrations.RunPython(set_publication_checksum),
+    ]
diff --git a/pulp_rpm/app/tasks/synchronizing.py b/pulp_rpm/app/tasks/synchronizing.py
index 57cea6322..c54ea63f9 100644
--- a/pulp_rpm/app/tasks/synchronizing.py
+++ b/pulp_rpm/app/tasks/synchronizing.py
@@ -577,6 +577,7 @@ def is_subrepo(directory):
             )
             repo_gpgcheck = has_repomd_signature and repository.repo_config.get("repo_gpgcheck", 0)
 
+            publication.checksum_type = CHECKSUM_TYPES.UNKNOWN
             publication.package_checksum_type = CHECKSUM_TYPES.UNKNOWN
             publication.metadata_checksum_type = CHECKSUM_TYPES.UNKNOWN
             publication.repo_config = {