diff --git a/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c b/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
index 98c46cde7d79..48e9cf01abc5 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
@@ -3010,6 +3010,21 @@ int btrfs_start_pre_rw_mount(struct btrfs_fs_info *fs_info)
 		}
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * btrfs_find_orphan_roots() is responsible for finding all the dead
+	 * roots (with 0 refs), flag them with BTRFS_ROOT_DEAD_TREE and load
+	 * them into the fs_info->fs_roots_radix tree. This must be done before
+	 * calling btrfs_orphan_cleanup() on the tree root. If we don't do it
+	 * first, then btrfs_orphan_cleanup() will delete a dead root's orphan
+	 * item before the root's tree is deleted - this means that if we unmount
+	 * or crash before the deletion completes, on the next mount we will not
+	 * delete what remains of the tree because the orphan item does not
+	 * exists anymore, which is what tells us we have a pending deletion.
+	 */
+	ret = btrfs_find_orphan_roots(fs_info);
+	if (ret)
+		goto out;
+
 	ret = btrfs_cleanup_fs_roots(fs_info);
 	if (ret)
 		goto out;
@@ -3069,7 +3084,6 @@ int btrfs_start_pre_rw_mount(struct btrfs_fs_info *fs_info)
 		}
 	}
 
-	ret = btrfs_find_orphan_roots(fs_info);
 out:
 	return ret;
 }