diff --git a/Doc/library/shutil.rst b/Doc/library/shutil.rst
index dde38498206c46..70bc7947d2b661 100644
--- a/Doc/library/shutil.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/shutil.rst
@@ -204,9 +204,13 @@ Directory and files operations
    *src* symbolic link to the newly created *dst* symbolic link.
    However, this functionality is not available on all platforms.
    On platforms where some or all of this functionality is
-   unavailable, :func:`copy2` will preserve all the metadata
-   it can; :func:`copy2` never raises an exception because it
-   cannot preserve file metadata.
+   unavailable, :func:`copy2` will preserve as much metadata as it
+   can.  However, individual metadata-copy operations (for example
+   changing ownership or setting certain flags) may fail on some
+   platforms or when the current process lacks privileges; such
+   failures can raise exceptions. If you need to avoid metadata-related
+   errors, use :func:`~shutil.copy`, which copies file data and the
+   permission bits but does not attempt to preserve other metadata.
 
    :func:`copy2` uses :func:`copystat` to copy the file metadata.
    Please see :func:`copystat` for more information
@@ -390,9 +394,8 @@ Directory and files operations
    *src* and the destination, and will be used to copy *src* to the destination
    if :func:`os.rename` cannot be used.  If the source is a directory,
    :func:`copytree` is called, passing it the *copy_function*. The
-   default *copy_function* is :func:`copy2`.  Using :func:`~shutil.copy` as the
-   *copy_function* allows the move to succeed when it is not possible to also
-   copy the metadata, at the expense of not copying any of the metadata.
+   default *copy_function* is :func:`copy2`. Any copy function with a signature
+   compatible with copy2() can be used (for instance, :func:`~shutil.copy`).
 
    .. audit-event:: shutil.move src,dst shutil.move