diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/metadata.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/metadata.rs
index 9e57a44532950..f8167f280deeb 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/metadata.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/metadata.rs
@@ -368,8 +368,7 @@ pub(crate) mod modern_serde {
     struct Crc32CalculationFailed<E>(#[source] E);
 
     // this should be false for a week, after that we can change it to true
-    // remember to change "metadata_bytes" from being a `serde(rename = "...")` to `serde(alias =
-    // "...")` in future.
+    // remember to check the IndexPart::metadata field TODO comment as well
     const LEGACY_BINCODED_BYTES: bool = true;
 
     #[derive(serde::Serialize)]
diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/remote_timeline_client/index.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/remote_timeline_client/index.rs
index 51ac037f2ba12..d088a48b535f9 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/remote_timeline_client/index.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/remote_timeline_client/index.rs
@@ -82,9 +82,9 @@ pub struct IndexPart {
     // private because internally we would read from metadata instead.
     disk_consistent_lsn: Lsn,
 
-    // TODO: later make this "rename" to "alias"
+    // TODO: later make this "rename" to "alias", rename field as "legacy_metadata"
     #[serde(
-        rename = "metadata_bytes",
+        alias = "metadata_bytes",
         with = "crate::tenant::metadata::modern_serde"
     )]
     pub metadata: TimelineMetadata,