diff --git a/drivers/gpio/gpiolib-of.c b/drivers/gpio/gpiolib-of.c
index 564bb7a31da43b4e924daf7501c36ec9a4eb8fc2..84e5a9df234433b430fc950a04d80dc9cd43bad8 100644
--- a/drivers/gpio/gpiolib-of.c
+++ b/drivers/gpio/gpiolib-of.c
@@ -241,6 +241,19 @@ struct gpio_desc *of_find_gpio(struct device *dev, const char *con_id,
 
 		desc = of_get_named_gpiod_flags(dev->of_node, prop_name, idx,
 						&of_flags);
+		/*
+		 * -EPROBE_DEFER in our case means that we found a
+		 * valid GPIO property, but no controller has been
+		 * registered so far.
+		 *
+		 * This means we don't need to look any further for
+		 * alternate name conventions, and we should really
+		 * preserve the return code for our user to be able to
+		 * retry probing later.
+		 */
+		if (IS_ERR(desc) && PTR_ERR(desc) == -EPROBE_DEFER)
+			return desc;
+
 		if (!IS_ERR(desc) || (PTR_ERR(desc) != -ENOENT))
 			break;
 	}
@@ -250,7 +263,7 @@ struct gpio_desc *of_find_gpio(struct device *dev, const char *con_id,
 		desc = of_find_spi_gpio(dev, con_id, &of_flags);
 
 	/* Special handling for regulator GPIOs if used */
-	if (IS_ERR(desc))
+	if (IS_ERR(desc) && PTR_ERR(desc) != -EPROBE_DEFER)
 		desc = of_find_regulator_gpio(dev, con_id, &of_flags);
 
 	if (IS_ERR(desc))