diff --git a/hgext/largefiles/basestore.py b/hgext/largefiles/basestore.py
--- a/hgext/largefiles/basestore.py
+++ b/hgext/largefiles/basestore.py
@@ -43,7 +43,8 @@ class basestore(object):
         raise NotImplementedError('abstract method')
 
     def exists(self, hashes):
-        '''Check to see if the store contains the given hashes.'''
+        '''Check to see if the store contains the given hashes. Given an
+        iterable of hashes it returns a mapping from hash to bool.'''
         raise NotImplementedError('abstract method')
 
     def get(self, files):
diff --git a/hgext/largefiles/remotestore.py b/hgext/largefiles/remotestore.py
--- a/hgext/largefiles/remotestore.py
+++ b/hgext/largefiles/remotestore.py
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ class remotestore(basestore.basestore):
             _('remotestore: put %s to remote store %s') % (source, self.url))
 
     def exists(self, hashes):
-        return self._verify(hashes)
+        return dict((h, s == 0) for (h, s) in self._stat(hashes).iteritems())
 
     def sendfile(self, filename, hash):
         self.ui.debug('remotestore: sendfile(%s, %s)\n' % (filename, hash))
@@ -76,9 +76,6 @@ class remotestore(basestore.basestore):
             infile = lfutil.limitreader(infile, length)
         return lfutil.copyandhash(lfutil.blockstream(infile), tmpfile)
 
-    def _verify(self, hashes):
-        return dict((h, s == 0) for (h, s) in self._stat(hashes).iteritems())
-
     def _verifyfile(self, cctx, cset, contents, standin, verified):
         filename = lfutil.splitstandin(standin)
         if not filename: