diff --git a/beetsplug/scrub.py b/beetsplug/scrub.py
index 18fa41da3..c17ac99fb 100644
--- a/beetsplug/scrub.py
+++ b/beetsplug/scrub.py
@@ -127,12 +127,12 @@ def _scrub(path):
             # remove them. In this case, we just remove all the tags.
             for tag in f.keys():
                 del f[tag]
+            f.save()
         except IOError as exc:
             log.error(u'could not scrub {0}: {1}'.format(
                 util.displayable_path(path),
                 exc,
             ))
-        f.save()
 
 
 # Automatically embed art into imported albums.
diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index 2ebf6b185..e3ed38e94 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -56,6 +56,8 @@ And some fixes:
   Thanks to Pedro Silva.
 * Fix an occasional KeyError in the :ref:`update-cmd` command introduced in
   1.3.0.
+* :doc:`/plugins/scrub`: Avoid preserving certain non-standard ID3 tags such
+  as NCON.
 
 .. _Opus: http://www.opus-codec.org/
 .. _@Verrus: https://github.com/Verrus