diff --git a/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c b/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
index 2b06f557c176..d0e61d58b121 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
@@ -3261,7 +3261,6 @@ int open_ctree(struct super_block *sb,
 
 fail_block_groups:
 	btrfs_put_block_group_cache(fs_info);
-	btrfs_free_block_groups(fs_info);
 
 fail_tree_roots:
 	free_root_pointers(fs_info, 1);
@@ -3269,6 +3268,7 @@ int open_ctree(struct super_block *sb,
 
 fail_sb_buffer:
 	btrfs_stop_all_workers(fs_info);
+	btrfs_free_block_groups(fs_info);
 fail_alloc:
 fail_iput:
 	btrfs_mapping_tree_free(&fs_info->mapping_tree);
@@ -3977,8 +3977,6 @@ void close_ctree(struct btrfs_fs_info *fs_info)
 
 	btrfs_put_block_group_cache(fs_info);
 
-	btrfs_free_block_groups(fs_info);
-
 	/*
 	 * we must make sure there is not any read request to
 	 * submit after we stopping all workers.
@@ -3986,6 +3984,8 @@ void close_ctree(struct btrfs_fs_info *fs_info)
 	invalidate_inode_pages2(fs_info->btree_inode->i_mapping);
 	btrfs_stop_all_workers(fs_info);
 
+	btrfs_free_block_groups(fs_info);
+
 	clear_bit(BTRFS_FS_OPEN, &fs_info->flags);
 	free_root_pointers(fs_info, 1);
 
diff --git a/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c b/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c
index c35b96633554..438c7312de33 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c
@@ -9740,6 +9740,11 @@ void btrfs_put_block_group_cache(struct btrfs_fs_info *info)
 	}
 }
 
+/*
+ * Must be called only after stopping all workers, since we could have block
+ * group caching kthreads running, and therefore they could race with us if we
+ * freed the block groups before stopping them.
+ */
 int btrfs_free_block_groups(struct btrfs_fs_info *info)
 {
 	struct btrfs_block_group_cache *block_group;
@@ -9779,9 +9784,6 @@ int btrfs_free_block_groups(struct btrfs_fs_info *info)
 		list_del(&block_group->list);
 		up_write(&block_group->space_info->groups_sem);
 
-		if (block_group->cached == BTRFS_CACHE_STARTED)
-			wait_block_group_cache_done(block_group);
-
 		/*
 		 * We haven't cached this block group, which means we could
 		 * possibly have excluded extents on this block group.
@@ -9791,6 +9793,7 @@ int btrfs_free_block_groups(struct btrfs_fs_info *info)
 			free_excluded_extents(info, block_group);
 
 		btrfs_remove_free_space_cache(block_group);
+		ASSERT(block_group->cached != BTRFS_CACHE_STARTED);
 		ASSERT(list_empty(&block_group->dirty_list));
 		ASSERT(list_empty(&block_group->io_list));
 		ASSERT(list_empty(&block_group->bg_list));