diff --git a/src/hdmf/backends/hdf5/h5_utils.py b/src/hdmf/backends/hdf5/h5_utils.py
index aded26b39..57e7365ee 100644
--- a/src/hdmf/backends/hdf5/h5_utils.py
+++ b/src/hdmf/backends/hdf5/h5_utils.py
@@ -146,9 +146,6 @@ def __iter__(self):
     def __next__(self):
         return self._get_ref(super().__next__())
 
-    def append(self, arg):
-        append_data(self.dataset, arg)
-
 
 class BuilderResolverMixin(BuilderResolver):
     """
diff --git a/src/hdmf/query.py b/src/hdmf/query.py
index 61aedba3b..ab413c992 100644
--- a/src/hdmf/query.py
+++ b/src/hdmf/query.py
@@ -165,7 +165,7 @@ def next(self):
         return self.dataset.next()
 
     def append(self, arg):
-        append_data(self.dataset, arg)
+        pass
 
 
 class ReferenceResolver(metaclass=ABCMeta):