diff --git a/framework/CHANGELOG.md b/framework/CHANGELOG.md
index d8b86cd..f1a23a6 100644
--- a/framework/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/framework/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -70,7 +70,8 @@ Yii Framework 2 Change Log
 - Enh: `Console::confirm()` now uses `Console::stdout()` instead of `echo` to be consistent with all other functions (cebe)
 - Enh: `yii\rbac\DbManager` migration now uses database component specified in component settings instead of always using default `db` (samdark)
 - Enh: Added `yii\base\Controller::renderContent()` (qiangxue)
-- Chg #3630: `yii\db\Command::queryInternal()` is now protected (samdark) 
+- Chg #3630: `yii\db\Command::queryInternal()` is now protected (samdark)
+- Chg #4277: `yii\grid\GridView` is no longer throwing an exception in non-debug mode when results are empty and `columns` aren't defined (samdark) 
 - Chg #5508: Dropped the support for the `--append` option for the `fixture` command (qiangxue)
 - Chg #5874: Upgraded Twitter Bootstrap to 3.3.x (samdark)
 
diff --git a/framework/grid/GridView.php b/framework/grid/GridView.php
index 4804f20..b88eb14 100644
--- a/framework/grid/GridView.php
+++ b/framework/grid/GridView.php
@@ -522,7 +522,7 @@ class GridView extends BaseListView
             foreach ($model as $name => $value) {
                 $this->columns[] = $name;
             }
-        } else {
+        } elseif (YII_DEBUG) {
             throw new InvalidConfigException('Unable to generate columns from the data. Please manually configure the "columns" property.');
         }
     }