diff --git a/fs/ext4/mballoc.c b/fs/ext4/mballoc.c
index c9ac43f40746..3babc07ae613 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/mballoc.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/mballoc.c
@@ -3603,6 +3603,10 @@ ext4_mb_normalize_request(struct ext4_allocation_context *ac,
 	start = max(start, rounddown(ac->ac_o_ex.fe_logical,
 			(ext4_lblk_t)EXT4_BLOCKS_PER_GROUP(ac->ac_sb)));
 
+	/* avoid unnecessary preallocation that may trigger assertions */
+	if (start + size > EXT_MAX_BLOCKS)
+		size = EXT_MAX_BLOCKS - start;
+
 	/* don't cover already allocated blocks in selected range */
 	if (ar->pleft && start <= ar->lleft) {
 		size -= ar->lleft + 1 - start;