diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/internal/config/package.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/internal/config/package.scala
index 9d7b31aa30f0..2078965e8824 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/internal/config/package.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/internal/config/package.scala
@@ -1095,14 +1095,6 @@ package object config {
       .booleanConf
       .createWithDefault(false)
 
-  private[spark] val SHUFFLE_HOST_LOCAL_DISK_READING_ENABLED =
-    ConfigBuilder("spark.shuffle.readHostLocalDisk.enabled")
-      .doc("If enabled, shuffle blocks requested from those block managers which are running on " +
-        "the same host are read from the disk directly instead of being fetched as remote blocks " +
-        "over the network.")
-      .booleanConf
-      .createWithDefault(true)
-
   private[spark] val STORAGE_LOCAL_DISK_BY_EXECUTORS_CACHE_SIZE =
     ConfigBuilder("spark.storage.localDiskByExecutors.cacheSize")
       .doc("The max number of executors for which the local dirs are stored. This size is " +
@@ -1148,6 +1140,14 @@ package object config {
       .booleanConf
       .createWithDefault(false)
 
+  private[spark] val SHUFFLE_HOST_LOCAL_DISK_READING_ENABLED =
+    ConfigBuilder("spark.shuffle.readHostLocalDisk.enabled")
+      .doc(s"If enabled (and `${SHUFFLE_USE_OLD_FETCH_PROTOCOL.key}` is disabled), shuffle " +
+        "blocks requested from those block managers which are running on the same host are read " +
+        "from the disk directly instead of being fetched as remote blocks over the network.")
+      .booleanConf
+      .createWithDefault(true)
+
   private[spark] val MEMORY_MAP_LIMIT_FOR_TESTS =
     ConfigBuilder("spark.storage.memoryMapLimitForTests")
       .internal()
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/storage/BlockManager.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/storage/BlockManager.scala
index cc28f9b77da3..c47901314f53 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/storage/BlockManager.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/storage/BlockManager.scala
@@ -478,7 +478,8 @@ private[spark] class BlockManager(
     }
 
     hostLocalDirManager =
-      if (conf.get(config.SHUFFLE_HOST_LOCAL_DISK_READING_ENABLED)) {
+      if (conf.get(config.SHUFFLE_HOST_LOCAL_DISK_READING_ENABLED) &&
+          !conf.get(config.SHUFFLE_USE_OLD_FETCH_PROTOCOL)) {
         externalBlockStoreClient.map { blockStoreClient =>
           new HostLocalDirManager(
             futureExecutionContext,
diff --git a/docs/core-migration-guide.md b/docs/core-migration-guide.md
index 17d071d0779b..fdb0afad6af9 100644
--- a/docs/core-migration-guide.md
+++ b/docs/core-migration-guide.md
@@ -36,3 +36,5 @@ license: |
 - Deprecated method `AccumulableInfo.apply` have been removed because creating `AccumulableInfo` is disallowed.
 
 - Event log file will be written as UTF-8 encoding, and Spark History Server will replay event log files as UTF-8 encoding. Previously Spark writes event log file as default charset of driver JVM process, so Spark History Server of Spark 2.x is needed to read the old event log files in case of incompatible encoding.
+
+- A new protocol for fetching shuffle blocks is used. It's recommended that external shuffle services be upgraded when running Spark 3.0 apps. Old external shuffle services can still be used by setting the configuration `spark.shuffle.useOldFetchProtocol` to `true`. Otherwise, Spark may run into errors with messages like `IllegalArgumentException: Unexpected message type: <number>`.
diff --git a/docs/sql-migration-guide.md b/docs/sql-migration-guide.md
index ca78f3ca46ea..73a4d19a1b15 100644
--- a/docs/sql-migration-guide.md
+++ b/docs/sql-migration-guide.md
@@ -97,8 +97,6 @@ license: |
 
   - Since Spark 3.0, when Avro files are written with user provided non-nullable schema, even the catalyst schema is nullable, Spark is still able to write the files. However, Spark will throw runtime NPE if any of the records contains null.
 
-  - Since Spark 3.0, we use a new protocol for fetching shuffle blocks, for external shuffle service users, we need to upgrade the server correspondingly. Otherwise, we'll get the error message `UnsupportedOperationException: Unexpected message: FetchShuffleBlocks`. If it is hard to upgrade the shuffle service right now, you can still use the old protocol by setting `spark.shuffle.useOldFetchProtocol` to `true`.
-
   - Since Spark 3.0, a higher-order function `exists` follows the three-valued boolean logic, i.e., if the `predicate` returns any `null`s and no `true` is obtained, then `exists` will return `null` instead of `false`. For example, `exists(array(1, null, 3), x -> x % 2 == 0)` will be `null`. The previous behaviour can be restored by setting `spark.sql.legacy.arrayExistsFollowsThreeValuedLogic` to `false`.
 
   - Since Spark 3.0, if files or subdirectories disappear during recursive directory listing (i.e. they appear in an intermediate listing but then cannot be read or listed during later phases of the recursive directory listing, due to either concurrent file deletions or object store consistency issues) then the listing will fail with an exception unless `spark.sql.files.ignoreMissingFiles` is `true` (default `false`). In previous versions, these missing files or subdirectories would be ignored. Note that this change of behavior only applies during initial table file listing (or during `REFRESH TABLE`), not during query execution: the net change is that `spark.sql.files.ignoreMissingFiles` is now obeyed during table file listing / query planning, not only at query execution time.