diff --git a/fs/btrfs/space-info.c b/fs/btrfs/space-info.c
index bd206fc300e7..2dd9d4e5c2c2 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/space-info.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/space-info.c
@@ -1264,8 +1264,6 @@ static void btrfs_preempt_reclaim_metadata_space(struct work_struct *work)
 		u64 to_reclaim, block_rsv_size;
 		const u64 global_rsv_size = btrfs_block_rsv_reserved(global_rsv);
 
-		loops++;
-
 		/*
 		 * We don't have a precise counter for the metadata being
 		 * reserved for delalloc, so we'll approximate it by subtracting
@@ -1311,6 +1309,8 @@ static void btrfs_preempt_reclaim_metadata_space(struct work_struct *work)
 
 		spin_unlock(&space_info->lock);
 
+		loops++;
+
 		/*
 		 * We don't want to reclaim everything, just a portion, so scale
 		 * down the to_reclaim by 1/4.  If it takes us down to 0,