diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 1a887f95ba..92f111dbb0 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -127,6 +127,8 @@
 * New function `get_strip_labels()` to retrieve facet labels (@teunbrand, #4979)
 * Fixed bug in `position_dodge2()`'s identification of range overlaps 
   (@teunbrand, #5938, #4327).
+* Fixed bug where empty discrete scales weren't recognised as such 
+  (@teunbrand, #5945).
 
 # ggplot2 3.5.1
 
diff --git a/R/scale-discrete-.R b/R/scale-discrete-.R
index 82bb8eb8fe..8fea10caf2 100644
--- a/R/scale-discrete-.R
+++ b/R/scale-discrete-.R
@@ -130,7 +130,9 @@ ScaleDiscretePosition <- ggproto("ScaleDiscretePosition", ScaleDiscrete,
   },
 
   is_empty = function(self) {
-    is.null(self$range$range) && is.null(self$limits) && is.null(self$range_c$range)
+    is.null(self$range$range) &&
+      (is.null(self$limits) || is.function(self$limits)) &&
+      is.null(self$range_c$range)
   },
 
   reset = function(self) {