diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index 62c4522fd6..9d94f7e9e5 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ Asmit Bhowmick
 Benjamin Williams
 Billy Poon
 Daniel Paley
+Daniel Tchon
 David Waterman
 Derek Mendez
 Graeme Winter
diff --git a/newsfragments/2311.bugfix b/newsfragments/2311.bugfix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0561a77435
--- /dev/null
+++ b/newsfragments/2311.bugfix
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+``dials.combine_experiments``: Prevent default ``clustering.max_clusters=None`` from raising error when clustering.
diff --git a/src/dials/command_line/combine_experiments.py b/src/dials/command_line/combine_experiments.py
index ac18992d00..f8e2fd13f3 100644
--- a/src/dials/command_line/combine_experiments.py
+++ b/src/dials/command_line/combine_experiments.py
@@ -745,6 +745,8 @@ def save_in_batches(
 
         # cluster the resulting experiments if requested
         if params.clustering.use and len(experiments) > 1:
+            if params.clustering.max_clusters == 0:
+                sys.exit("Error: max_clusters must be None or >0")
             clustered = do_unit_cell_clustering(
                 experiments,
                 reflections,
@@ -752,9 +754,9 @@ def save_in_batches(
                 threshold=params.clustering.threshold,
             )
             n_clusters = len(clustered)
-            clusters = sorted(clustered.clusters, key=len, reverse=True)[
-                : min(params.clustering.max_clusters, n_clusters)
-            ]
+            clusters = sorted(clustered.clusters, key=len, reverse=True)
+            if params.clustering.max_clusters is not None:
+                clusters = clusters[: params.clustering.max_clusters]
             if params.clustering.exclude_single_crystal_clusters:
                 clusters = [c for c in clusters if len(c) > 1]
             clustered_experiments = [