diff --git a/fs/xfs/libxfs/xfs_bmap.c b/fs/xfs/libxfs/xfs_bmap.c
index 054b4ce30033..eaf2d4250a26 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/libxfs/xfs_bmap.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/libxfs/xfs_bmap.c
@@ -5621,6 +5621,11 @@ xfs_bmse_merge(
 	if (error)
 		return error;
 
+	/* change to extent format if required after extent removal */
+	error = xfs_bmap_btree_to_extents(tp, ip, cur, logflags, whichfork);
+	if (error)
+		return error;
+
 done:
 	xfs_iext_remove(ip, icur, 0);
 	xfs_iext_prev(XFS_IFORK_PTR(ip, whichfork), icur);