diff --git a/.changeset/three-islands-juggle.md b/.changeset/three-islands-juggle.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a4d2dff2c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/three-islands-juggle.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+"@pnpm/resolve-dependencies": patch
+pnpm: patch
+---
+
+When using pnpm catalogs and running a normal `pnpm install`, pnpm produced false positive warnings for "_skip adding to the default catalog because it already exists_". This warning now only prints when using `pnpm add --save-catalog` as originally intended.
diff --git a/pkg-manager/resolve-dependencies/src/resolveDependencyTree.ts b/pkg-manager/resolve-dependencies/src/resolveDependencyTree.ts
index 727f0a564f..1ec1a93b31 100644
--- a/pkg-manager/resolve-dependencies/src/resolveDependencyTree.ts
+++ b/pkg-manager/resolve-dependencies/src/resolveDependencyTree.ts
@@ -245,6 +245,11 @@ export async function resolveDependencyTree<T> (
   for (const directDependencies of pkgAddressesByImporters) {
     for (const directDep of directDependencies as PkgAddress[]) {
       const { alias, normalizedBareSpecifier, version, saveCatalogName } = directDep
+
+      if (saveCatalogName == null) {
+        continue
+      }
+
       const existingCatalog = opts.catalogs?.default?.[alias]
       if (existingCatalog != null) {
         if (existingCatalog !== normalizedBareSpecifier) {
@@ -252,7 +257,7 @@ export async function resolveDependencyTree<T> (
             `Skip adding ${alias} to the default catalog because it already exists as ${existingCatalog}. Please use \`pnpm update\` to update the catalogs.`
           )
         }
-      } else if (saveCatalogName != null && normalizedBareSpecifier != null && version != null) {
+      } else if (normalizedBareSpecifier != null && version != null) {
         const userSpecifiedBareSpecifier = `catalog:${saveCatalogName === 'default' ? '' : saveCatalogName}`
 
         // Attach metadata about how this new catalog dependency should be