diff --git a/lib/format_text/format-text.c b/lib/format_text/format-text.c
index a5d839762..f33451fb9 100644
--- a/lib/format_text/format-text.c
+++ b/lib/format_text/format-text.c
@@ -320,6 +320,8 @@ static int _raw_read_mda_header(struct mda_header *mdah, struct device_area *dev
 	log_debug_metadata("Reading mda header sector from %s at %llu",
 			   dev_name(dev_area->dev), (unsigned long long)dev_area->start);
 
+	label_scan_confirm(dev_area->dev);  /* FIXME: remove this, ensures dev is in bcache */
+
 	if (!bcache_read_bytes(scan_bcache, dev_area->dev->bcache_fd, dev_area->start, MDA_HEADER_SIZE, mdah)) {
 		log_error("Failed to read metadata area header on %s at %llu",
 			  dev_name(dev_area->dev), (unsigned long long)dev_area->start);
@@ -462,6 +464,8 @@ static struct raw_locn *_read_metadata_location_vg(struct device_area *dev_area,
 	 */
 	memset(vgnamebuf, 0, sizeof(vgnamebuf));
 
+	label_scan_confirm(dev_area->dev);  /* FIXME: remove this, ensures dev is in bcache */
+
 	bcache_read_bytes(scan_bcache, dev_area->dev->bcache_fd, dev_area->start + rlocn->offset, NAME_LEN, vgnamebuf);
 
 	if (!strncmp(vgnamebuf, vgname, len = strlen(vgname)) &&
@@ -1209,6 +1213,8 @@ int read_metadata_location_summary(const struct format_type *fmt,
 		return 0;
 	}
 
+	label_scan_confirm(dev_area->dev);  /* FIXME: remove this, ensures dev is in bcache */
+
 	bcache_read_bytes(scan_bcache, dev_area->dev->bcache_fd, dev_area->start + rlocn->offset, NAME_LEN, buf);
 
 	while (buf[len] && !isspace(buf[len]) && buf[len] != '{' &&
diff --git a/lib/label/label.c b/lib/label/label.c
index 2ec187c81..5da781ec4 100644
--- a/lib/label/label.c
+++ b/lib/label/label.c
@@ -786,3 +786,21 @@ int label_read_sector(struct device *dev, struct label **labelp, uint64_t scan_s
 	return label_read(dev, labelp, 0);
 }
 
+/*
+ * FIXME: remove this.  It should not be needed once writes are going through
+ * bcache.  As it is now, the write path involves multiple writes to a device,
+ * and later writes want to read previous writes from disk.  They do these
+ * reads using the standard read paths which require the devs to be in bcache,
+ * but the bcache reads do not find the dev because the writes have gone around
+ * bcache.  To work around this for now, check if each dev is in bcache before
+ * reading it, and if not add it first.
+ */
+
+void label_scan_confirm(struct device *dev)
+{
+	if (!_in_bcache(dev)) {
+		log_warn("add dev %s to bcache", dev_name(dev));
+		label_read(dev, NULL, 0);
+	}
+}
+
diff --git a/lib/label/label.h b/lib/label/label.h
index eb62f6452..e265a6b9b 100644
--- a/lib/label/label.h
+++ b/lib/label/label.h
@@ -109,5 +109,6 @@ void label_scan_invalidate(struct device *dev);
 void label_scan_destroy(struct cmd_context *cmd);
 int label_read(struct device *dev, struct label **labelp, uint64_t unused_sector);
 int label_read_sector(struct device *dev, struct label **labelp, uint64_t scan_sector);
+void label_scan_confirm(struct device *dev);
 
 #endif