diff --git a/.drone.yml b/.drone.yml
index c550839b3e299..ac8b4bf684fc5 100644
--- a/.drone.yml
+++ b/.drone.yml
@@ -2213,6 +2213,7 @@ steps:
 - name: nodb-codecov
   image: nextcloudci/php7.1:php7.1-16
   commands:
+    - bash tests/drone-run-coverage.sh || exit 0
     - phpenmod xdebug
     - TEST_SELECTION=NODB ./autotest.sh sqlite
     - wget https://codecov.io/bash -O codecov.sh
@@ -2243,6 +2244,7 @@ steps:
 - name: db-codecov
   image: nextcloudci/php7.1:php7.1-16
   commands:
+    - bash tests/drone-run-coverage.sh || exit 0
     - phpenmod xdebug
     - TEST_SELECTION=QUICKDB ./autotest.sh sqlite
     - wget https://codecov.io/bash -O codecov.sh
diff --git a/tests/drone-run-coverage.sh b/tests/drone-run-coverage.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000..58c4bbb9baffc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/drone-run-coverage.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+echo "========================="
+echo "= List of changed files ="
+echo "========================="
+git diff --name-only origin/$DRONE_TARGET_BRANCH...$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
+echo "========================="
+
+[[ $(git diff --name-only origin/$DRONE_TARGET_BRANCH...$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA | wc -l) -eq 0 ]] && echo "No files are modified => merge commit" && exit 0
+
+exit 1