diff --git a/fs/btrfs/relocation.c b/fs/btrfs/relocation.c
index 022e5af66fba3c5171e69c68542cd95885485b58..2641b6c5c362332f42e9151d1c1ffab30b42d1f4 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/relocation.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/relocation.c
@@ -2653,7 +2653,21 @@ void merge_reloc_roots(struct reloc_control *rc)
 			free_reloc_roots(&reloc_roots);
 	}
 
-	BUG_ON(!RB_EMPTY_ROOT(&rc->reloc_root_tree.rb_root));
+	/*
+	 * We used to have
+	 *
+	 * BUG_ON(!RB_EMPTY_ROOT(&rc->reloc_root_tree.rb_root));
+	 *
+	 * here, but it's wrong.  If we fail to start the transaction in
+	 * prepare_to_merge() we will have only 0 ref reloc roots, none of which
+	 * have actually been removed from the reloc_root_tree rb tree.  This is
+	 * fine because we're bailing here, and we hold a reference on the root
+	 * for the list that holds it, so these roots will be cleaned up when we
+	 * do the reloc_dirty_list afterwards.  Meanwhile the root->reloc_root
+	 * will be cleaned up on unmount.
+	 *
+	 * The remaining nodes will be cleaned up by free_reloc_control.
+	 */
 }
 
 static void free_block_list(struct rb_root *blocks)