diff --git a/pgxn/neon/communicator_new.c b/pgxn/neon/communicator_new.c
index 5f8d8788e2..f71c6d1bac 100644
--- a/pgxn/neon/communicator_new.c
+++ b/pgxn/neon/communicator_new.c
@@ -126,6 +126,12 @@ pg_init_communicator_new(void)
 {
 	BackgroundWorker bgw;
 
+	if (pageserver_connstring[0] == '\0' && pageserver_grpc_urls[0] == '\0')
+	{
+		/* running with local storage */
+		return;
+	}
+
 	/* Initialize the background worker process */
 	memset(&bgw, 0, sizeof(bgw));
 	bgw.bgw_flags = BGWORKER_SHMEM_ACCESS;
@@ -382,6 +388,12 @@ communicator_new_init(void)
 	Assert(cis != NULL);
 	Assert(my_bs == NULL);
 
+	if (pageserver_connstring[0] == '\0' && pageserver_grpc_urls[0] == '\0')
+	{
+		/* running with local storage */
+		return;
+	}
+
 	if (MyBgworkerEntry && strcmp(MyBgworkerEntry->bgw_function_name, "communicator_new_bgworker_main") == 0)
 		return;
 
diff --git a/pgxn/neon/libpagestore.c b/pgxn/neon/libpagestore.c
index c68f25fe80..ee17b5d33b 100644
--- a/pgxn/neon/libpagestore.c
+++ b/pgxn/neon/libpagestore.c
@@ -1621,7 +1621,7 @@ pg_init_libpagestore(void)
 	if (neon_auth_token)
 		neon_log(LOG, "using storage auth token from NEON_AUTH_TOKEN environment variable");
 
-	if (pageserver_connstring[0] || pageserver_connstring[0])
+	if (pageserver_connstring[0] || pageserver_grpc_urls[0])
 	{
 		neon_log(PageStoreTrace, "set neon_smgr hook");
 		smgr_hook = smgr_neon;