diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index d0f1fcb3d0..d611dff49d 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -345,3 +345,7 @@ fetch-submodules:
 remove-submodules:
 	git submodule deinit -f --all
 	rm -rf .git/modules/*
+
+.PHONY: fetch-tags
+fetch-tags:
+	git fetch --tags --recurse-submodules=no --shallow-since="2023-02-01" https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython HEAD
diff --git a/py/makeversionhdr.py b/py/makeversionhdr.py
index 6576c3abbb..b0d00a694e 100644
--- a/py/makeversionhdr.py
+++ b/py/makeversionhdr.py
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ def cannot_determine_version():
 CircuitPython must be built from a git clone with tags.
 If you cloned from a fork, fetch the tags from adafruit/circuitpython as follows:
 
-    git fetch --tags --recurse-submodules=no --shallow-since="2021-07-01" https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython HEAD"""
+    make fetch-tags"""
     )