diff --git a/fs/btrfs/ctree.c b/fs/btrfs/ctree.c
index dac30b00d14b..822c615840e8 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/ctree.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/ctree.c
@@ -2658,12 +2658,9 @@ static struct extent_buffer *btrfs_search_slot_get_root(struct btrfs_root *root,
 {
 	struct btrfs_fs_info *fs_info = root->fs_info;
 	struct extent_buffer *b;
-	int root_lock;
+	int root_lock = 0;
 	int level = 0;
 
-	/* We try very hard to do read locks on the root */
-	root_lock = BTRFS_READ_LOCK;
-
 	if (p->search_commit_root) {
 		/*
 		 * The commit roots are read only so we always do read locks,
@@ -2701,6 +2698,9 @@ static struct extent_buffer *btrfs_search_slot_get_root(struct btrfs_root *root,
 		goto out;
 	}
 
+	/* We try very hard to do read locks on the root */
+	root_lock = BTRFS_READ_LOCK;
+
 	/*
 	 * If the level is set to maximum, we can skip trying to get the read
 	 * lock.
@@ -2727,6 +2727,17 @@ static struct extent_buffer *btrfs_search_slot_get_root(struct btrfs_root *root,
 	level = btrfs_header_level(b);
 
 out:
+	/*
+	 * The root may have failed to write out at some point, and thus is no
+	 * longer valid, return an error in this case.
+	 */
+	if (!extent_buffer_uptodate(b)) {
+		if (root_lock)
+			btrfs_tree_unlock_rw(b, root_lock);
+		free_extent_buffer(b);
+		return ERR_PTR(-EIO);
+	}
+
 	p->nodes[level] = b;
 	if (!p->skip_locking)
 		p->locks[level] = root_lock;