diff --git a/charts/external-dns/CHANGELOG.md b/charts/external-dns/CHANGELOG.md
index ff98c19ac..a58a88b70 100644
--- a/charts/external-dns/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/charts/external-dns/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -25,6 +25,10 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - Added the option to explicitly enable or disable service account token automounting. ([#3983](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/external-dns/pull/3983)) [@gilles-gosuin](https://github.com/gilles-gosuin)
 - Added the option to configure revisionHistoryLimit on the K8s Deployment resource. ([#4008](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/external-dns/pull/4008)) [@arnisoph](https://github.com/arnisoph)
 
+### Changed
+
+- Avoid unnecessary pod restart on each helm chart version. ([#4103](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/external-dns/pull/4103)) [@jkroepke](https://github.com/jkroepke)
+
 ## [v1.13.1] - 2023-09-07
 
 ### Added
diff --git a/charts/external-dns/templates/deployment.yaml b/charts/external-dns/templates/deployment.yaml
index ef2ecc476..214fca9fa 100644
--- a/charts/external-dns/templates/deployment.yaml
+++ b/charts/external-dns/templates/deployment.yaml
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ spec:
       {{- if or .Values.secretConfiguration.enabled .Values.podAnnotations }}
       annotations:
         {{- if .Values.secretConfiguration.enabled }}
-        checksum/secret: {{ include (print $.Template.BasePath "/secret.yaml") . | sha256sum }}
+        checksum/secret: {{ tpl (toYaml .Values.secretConfiguration.data) . | sha256sum }}
         {{- end }}
         {{- with .Values.podAnnotations }}
         {{- toYaml . | nindent 8 }}