diff --git a/connector/avro/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroUtils.scala b/connector/avro/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroUtils.scala
index c1365d1b5ae1c..269a8b80c2b77 100644
--- a/connector/avro/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroUtils.scala
+++ b/connector/avro/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroUtils.scala
@@ -197,19 +197,21 @@ private[sql] object AvroUtils extends Logging {
 
     def hasNextRow: Boolean = {
       while (!completed && currentRow.isEmpty) {
-        if (fileReader.pastSync(stopPosition)) {
+        // In the case of empty blocks in an Avro file, `blockRemaining` could still read as 0 so
+        // `fileReader.hasNext()` returns false but advances the cursor to the next block, so we
+        // need to call `fileReader.hasNext()` again to correctly report if the next record
+        // exists.
+        val moreData =
+          (fileReader.hasNext || fileReader.hasNext) && !fileReader.pastSync(stopPosition)
+        if (!moreData) {
           fileReader.close()
           completed = true
           currentRow = None
-        } else if (fileReader.hasNext()) {
+        } else {
           val record = fileReader.next()
           // the row must be deserialized in hasNextRow, because AvroDeserializer#deserialize
           // potentially filters rows
           currentRow = deserializer.deserialize(record).asInstanceOf[Option[InternalRow]]
-        } else {
-          // In this case, `fileReader.hasNext()` returns false but we are not past sync point yet.
-          // This means empty blocks, we need to continue reading the file in case there are non
-          // empty blocks or we are past sync point.
         }
       }
       currentRow.isDefined
diff --git a/connector/avro/src/test/resources/empty_file.avro b/connector/avro/src/test/resources/empty_file.avro
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..9c7e15352149b
Binary files /dev/null and b/connector/avro/src/test/resources/empty_file.avro differ
diff --git a/connector/avro/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroSuite.scala b/connector/avro/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroSuite.scala
index 1065a332cfc2a..3db95835e2f8b 100644
--- a/connector/avro/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroSuite.scala
+++ b/connector/avro/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/avro/AvroSuite.scala
@@ -2744,6 +2744,16 @@ abstract class AvroSuite
       }
     }
   }
+
+  test("SPARK-46990: read an empty file where pastSync returns false at EOF") {
+    for (maxPartitionBytes <- Seq(100, 100000, 100000000)) {
+      withSQLConf(SQLConf.FILES_MAX_PARTITION_BYTES.key -> s"$maxPartitionBytes") {
+        val file = getResourceAvroFilePath("empty_file.avro")
+        val df = spark.read.format("avro").load(file)
+        assert(df.count() == 0)
+      }
+    }
+  }
 }
 
 class AvroV1Suite extends AvroSuite {