diff --git a/R/describe_missing.R b/R/describe_missing.R
index 8d215e366..620d14da1 100644
--- a/R/describe_missing.R
+++ b/R/describe_missing.R
@@ -38,12 +38,14 @@
 #'   df,
 #'   select = -1,
 #'   names_sep = "_",
-#'   names_to = c("dimension", "item"))
+#'   names_to = c("dimension", "item")
+#' )
 #'
 #' describe_missing(
 #'   df_long,
 #'   select = -c(1, 3),
-#'   by = "dimension")
+#'   by = "dimension"
+#' )
 #'
 describe_missing <- function(data,
                              select = NULL,
@@ -65,9 +67,14 @@ describe_missing <- function(data,
       ...
     )
   }
-  if (!is.null(by)) {
+  if (is.null(by)) {
+    na_list <- lapply(names(data), function(x) {
+      data_subset <- data[, x, drop = FALSE]
+      .describe_missing(data_subset)
+    })
+  } else {
     if (!by %in% names(data)) {
-      stop("The 'by' column does not exist in the data.")
+      stop("The 'by' column does not exist in the data.", call. = FALSE)
     }
     grouped_data <- split(data, data[[by]])
     na_list <- lapply(names(grouped_data), function(group_name) {
@@ -82,11 +89,6 @@ describe_missing <- function(data,
       group_na_df$variable <- group_name
       group_na_df
     })
-  } else {
-    na_list <- lapply(names(data), function(x) {
-      data_subset <- data[, x, drop = FALSE]
-      .describe_missing(data_subset)
-    })
   }
   na_df <- do.call(rbind, na_list)
   if (isTRUE(sort)) {
diff --git a/man/describe_missing.Rd b/man/describe_missing.Rd
index bda13d11c..daf863738 100644
--- a/man/describe_missing.Rd
+++ b/man/describe_missing.Rd
@@ -120,11 +120,13 @@ df_long <- reshape_longer(
   df,
   select = -1,
   names_sep = "_",
-  names_to = c("dimension", "item"))
+  names_to = c("dimension", "item")
+)
 
 describe_missing(
   df_long,
   select = -c(1, 3),
-  by = "dimension")
+  by = "dimension"
+)
 
 }
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-describe_missing.R b/tests/testthat/test-describe_missing.R
index 9c3dba43d..d26758cca 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-describe_missing.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-describe_missing.R
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ test_that("describe_missing", {
     ID = c("idz", NA),
     openness_1 = fun(), openness_2 = fun(), openness_3 = fun(),
     extroversion_1 = fun(), extroversion_2 = fun(), extroversion_3 = fun(),
-    agreeableness_1 = fun(), agreeableness_2 = fun(), agreeableness_3 = fun()
+    agreeableness_1 = fun(), agreeableness_2 = fun(), agreeableness_3 = fun(),
+    stringsAsFactors = FALSE
   )
 
   # Pivot and group using datawizard