diff --git a/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c b/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
index 4e47849..070c1da 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
@@ -2517,6 +2517,7 @@
 	int num_backups_tried = 0;
 	int backup_index = 0;
 	int max_active;
+	bool cleaner_mutex_locked = false;
 
 	tree_root = fs_info->tree_root = btrfs_alloc_root(fs_info, GFP_KERNEL);
 	chunk_root = fs_info->chunk_root = btrfs_alloc_root(fs_info, GFP_KERNEL);
@@ -2997,6 +2998,13 @@
 		goto fail_sysfs;
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * Hold the cleaner_mutex thread here so that we don't block
+	 * for a long time on btrfs_recover_relocation.  cleaner_kthread
+	 * will wait for us to finish mounting the filesystem.
+	 */
+	mutex_lock(&fs_info->cleaner_mutex);
+	cleaner_mutex_locked = true;
 	fs_info->cleaner_kthread = kthread_run(cleaner_kthread, tree_root,
 					       "btrfs-cleaner");
 	if (IS_ERR(fs_info->cleaner_kthread))
@@ -3056,10 +3064,8 @@
 		ret = btrfs_cleanup_fs_roots(fs_info);
 		if (ret)
 			goto fail_qgroup;
-
-		mutex_lock(&fs_info->cleaner_mutex);
+		/* We locked cleaner_mutex before creating cleaner_kthread. */
 		ret = btrfs_recover_relocation(tree_root);
-		mutex_unlock(&fs_info->cleaner_mutex);
 		if (ret < 0) {
 			printk(KERN_WARNING
 			       "BTRFS: failed to recover relocation\n");
@@ -3067,6 +3073,8 @@
 			goto fail_qgroup;
 		}
 	}
+	mutex_unlock(&fs_info->cleaner_mutex);
+	cleaner_mutex_locked = false;
 
 	location.objectid = BTRFS_FS_TREE_OBJECTID;
 	location.type = BTRFS_ROOT_ITEM_KEY;
@@ -3180,6 +3188,10 @@
 	filemap_write_and_wait(fs_info->btree_inode->i_mapping);
 
 fail_sysfs:
+	if (cleaner_mutex_locked) {
+		mutex_unlock(&fs_info->cleaner_mutex);
+		cleaner_mutex_locked = false;
+	}
 	btrfs_sysfs_remove_mounted(fs_info);
 
 fail_fsdev_sysfs: