diff --git a/tools/vgimportdevices.c b/tools/vgimportdevices.c
index 3f315f98f..2580613c4 100644
--- a/tools/vgimportdevices.c
+++ b/tools/vgimportdevices.c
@@ -172,6 +172,17 @@ int vgimportdevices(struct cmd_context *cmd, int argc, char **argv)
 	cmd->filter_regex_with_devices_file = 1;
 	cmd->create_edit_devices_file = 1;
 
+	/*
+	 * This helps a user bootstrap existing shared VGs into the devices
+	 * file. Reading the vg to import devices requires locking, but
+	 * lockstart won't find the vg before it's in the devices file.
+	 * So, allow importing devices without an lvmlockd lock (in a
+	 * a shared vg the vg metadata won't be updated with device ids,
+	 * so the lvmlockd lock isn't protecting vg modification.)
+	 */
+	cmd->lockd_gl_disable = 1;
+	cmd->lockd_vg_disable = 1;
+
 	/*
 	 * For each VG:
 	 * device_id_add() each PV in the VG