diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_trans.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_trans.c
index 53ab544e4c2cbf09676a221b3001e2139c8b493d..8afc0c080861d53e379a53d23bd66c1e1b9f3009 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_trans.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_trans.c
@@ -1078,10 +1078,10 @@ xfs_trans_cancel(
 	/*
 	 * It's never valid to cancel a transaction with deferred ops attached,
 	 * because the transaction is effectively dirty.  Complain about this
-	 * loudly before freeing the in-memory defer items.
+	 * loudly before freeing the in-memory defer items and shutting down the
+	 * filesystem.
 	 */
 	if (!list_empty(&tp->t_dfops)) {
-		ASSERT(xfs_is_shutdown(mp) || list_empty(&tp->t_dfops));
 		ASSERT(tp->t_flags & XFS_TRANS_PERM_LOG_RES);
 		dirty = true;
 		xfs_defer_cancel(tp);