diff --git a/drivers/md/dm-region-hash.c b/drivers/md/dm-region-hash.c
index 36dbe29..00806b7 100644
--- a/drivers/md/dm-region-hash.c
+++ b/drivers/md/dm-region-hash.c
@@ -79,6 +79,11 @@
 	struct list_head recovered_regions;
 	struct list_head failed_recovered_regions;
 
+	/*
+	 * If there was a barrier failure no regions can be marked clean.
+	 */
+	int barrier_failure;
+
 	void *context;
 	sector_t target_begin;
 
@@ -211,6 +216,7 @@
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&rh->quiesced_regions);
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&rh->recovered_regions);
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&rh->failed_recovered_regions);
+	rh->barrier_failure = 0;
 
 	rh->region_pool = mempool_create_kmalloc_pool(MIN_REGIONS,
 						      sizeof(struct dm_region));
@@ -395,6 +401,11 @@
 	region_t region = dm_rh_bio_to_region(rh, bio);
 	int recovering = 0;
 
+	if (bio_empty_barrier(bio)) {
+		rh->barrier_failure = 1;
+		return;
+	}
+
 	/* We must inform the log that the sync count has changed. */
 	log->type->set_region_sync(log, region, 0);
 
@@ -515,8 +526,11 @@
 {
 	struct bio *bio;
 
-	for (bio = bios->head; bio; bio = bio->bi_next)
+	for (bio = bios->head; bio; bio = bio->bi_next) {
+		if (bio_empty_barrier(bio))
+			continue;
 		rh_inc(rh, dm_rh_bio_to_region(rh, bio));
+	}
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(dm_rh_inc_pending);
 
@@ -544,7 +558,14 @@
 		 */
 
 		/* do nothing for DM_RH_NOSYNC */
-		if (reg->state == DM_RH_RECOVERING) {
+		if (unlikely(rh->barrier_failure)) {
+			/*
+			 * If a write barrier failed some time ago, we
+			 * don't know whether or not this write made it
+			 * to the disk, so we must resync the device.
+			 */
+			reg->state = DM_RH_NOSYNC;
+		} else if (reg->state == DM_RH_RECOVERING) {
 			list_add_tail(&reg->list, &rh->quiesced_regions);
 		} else if (reg->state == DM_RH_DIRTY) {
 			reg->state = DM_RH_CLEAN;