diff --git a/fs/ext4/indirect.c b/fs/ext4/indirect.c
index 8a57e9fcd1b9..f85bafd474dc 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/indirect.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/indirect.c
@@ -389,7 +389,13 @@ static int ext4_alloc_branch(handle_t *handle, struct inode *inode,
 	return 0;
 failed:
 	for (; i >= 0; i--) {
-		if (i != indirect_blks && branch[i].bh)
+		/*
+		 * We want to ext4_forget() only freshly allocated indirect
+		 * blocks.  Buffer for new_blocks[i-1] is at branch[i].bh and
+		 * buffer at branch[0].bh is indirect block / inode already
+		 * existing before ext4_alloc_branch() was called.
+		 */
+		if (i > 0 && i != indirect_blks && branch[i].bh)
 			ext4_forget(handle, 1, inode, branch[i].bh,
 				    branch[i].bh->b_blocknr);
 		ext4_free_blocks(handle, inode, NULL, new_blocks[i],