diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/xattr.c b/fs/ocfs2/xattr.c
index 822b1e9c3ba2..ac41653e59f5 100644
--- a/fs/ocfs2/xattr.c
+++ b/fs/ocfs2/xattr.c
@@ -4704,6 +4704,21 @@ static void ocfs2_cp_xattr_block_to_bucket(struct inode *inode,
 	for (i = 0; i < blks; i++)
 		memset(bucket_block(bucket, i), 0, blocksize);
 
+	/*
+	 * An empty block has no names or values to carry over, and the
+	 * xh_entries[count - 1] below would be xh_entries[-1].  Leave the
+	 * bucket empty, but carry over the hash ocfs2_xa_remove_entry() left
+	 * in the block's xh_entries[0] so that the bucket still holds the key
+	 * it is looked up by.
+	 */
+	if (!count) {
+		xh->xh_num_buckets = cpu_to_le16(1);
+		xh->xh_free_start = cpu_to_le16(OCFS2_XATTR_BUCKET_SIZE);
+		xh->xh_entries[0].xe_name_hash =
+			xb_xh->xh_entries[0].xe_name_hash;
+		return;
+	}
+
 	/*
 	 * Since the xe_name_offset is based on ocfs2_xattr_header,
 	 * there is a offset change corresponding to the change of