diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e9104a0280d2..6a2b40e8ce5d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 - Avoid emulator data loss when there an error during export (#3504)
+- Ask before overwriting `storage.rules` during `firebase init` (#1833)
diff --git a/src/init/features/storage.ts b/src/init/features/storage.ts
index 096e8f9d9847..0db674109c5e 100644
--- a/src/init/features/storage.ts
+++ b/src/init/features/storage.ts
@@ -27,5 +27,5 @@ export async function doSetup(setup: any, config: any): Promise<void> {
     default: "storage.rules",
   });
   setup.config.storage.rules = storageRulesFile;
-  config.writeProjectFile(setup.config.storage.rules, RULES_TEMPLATE);
+  await config.askWriteProjectFile(setup.config.storage.rules, RULES_TEMPLATE);
 }
diff --git a/src/test/init/features/storage.spec.ts b/src/test/init/features/storage.spec.ts
index 09c302eacf81..5c2ddd114420 100644
--- a/src/test/init/features/storage.spec.ts
+++ b/src/test/init/features/storage.spec.ts
@@ -9,11 +9,11 @@ import * as prompt from "../../../prompt";
 
 describe("storage", () => {
   const sandbox: sinon.SinonSandbox = sinon.createSandbox();
-  let writeProjectFileStub: sinon.SinonStub;
+  let askWriteProjectFileStub: sinon.SinonStub;
   let promptStub: sinon.SinonStub;
 
   beforeEach(() => {
-    writeProjectFileStub = sandbox.stub(Config.prototype, "writeProjectFile");
+    askWriteProjectFileStub = sandbox.stub(Config.prototype, "askWriteProjectFile");
     promptStub = sandbox.stub(prompt, "promptOnce");
   });
 
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ describe("storage", () => {
         projectLocation: "us-central",
       };
       promptStub.returns("storage.rules");
-      writeProjectFileStub.resolves();
+      askWriteProjectFileStub.resolves();
 
       await doSetup(setup, new Config("/path/to/src", {}));