diff --git a/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c b/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c
index f3de211173adfec0b859761c1f6c178f6e75e7c3..3a129c42658ebc983fb394be5cb3ebf83998006a 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c
@@ -5135,6 +5135,8 @@ static int __reserve_metadata_bytes(struct btrfs_root *root,
 	int ret = 0;
 
 	ASSERT(orig_bytes);
+	ASSERT(!current->journal_info || flush != BTRFS_RESERVE_FLUSH_ALL);
+
 	spin_lock(&space_info->lock);
 	ret = -ENOSPC;
 	used = space_info->bytes_used + space_info->bytes_reserved +
diff --git a/fs/btrfs/relocation.c b/fs/btrfs/relocation.c
index 23e16de52e23b83046a98d8b96f1d99599b1923f..fc067b07e31fac354c45a0f0ad1b693886b80a47 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/relocation.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/relocation.c
@@ -2604,25 +2604,28 @@ static int reserve_metadata_space(struct btrfs_trans_handle *trans,
 
 	trans->block_rsv = rc->block_rsv;
 	rc->reserved_bytes += num_bytes;
+
+	/*
+	 * We are under a transaction here so we can only do limited flushing.
+	 * If we get an enospc just kick back -EAGAIN so we know to drop the
+	 * transaction and try to refill when we can flush all the things.
+	 */
 	ret = btrfs_block_rsv_refill(root, rc->block_rsv, num_bytes,
-				BTRFS_RESERVE_FLUSH_ALL);
+				BTRFS_RESERVE_FLUSH_LIMIT);
 	if (ret) {
-		if (ret == -EAGAIN) {
-			tmp = rc->extent_root->nodesize *
-				RELOCATION_RESERVED_NODES;
-			while (tmp <= rc->reserved_bytes)
-				tmp <<= 1;
-			/*
-			 * only one thread can access block_rsv at this point,
-			 * so we don't need hold lock to protect block_rsv.
-			 * we expand more reservation size here to allow enough
-			 * space for relocation and we will return earlier in
-			 * enospc case.
-			 */
-			rc->block_rsv->size = tmp + rc->extent_root->nodesize *
-					      RELOCATION_RESERVED_NODES;
-		}
-		return ret;
+		tmp = rc->extent_root->nodesize * RELOCATION_RESERVED_NODES;
+		while (tmp <= rc->reserved_bytes)
+			tmp <<= 1;
+		/*
+		 * only one thread can access block_rsv at this point,
+		 * so we don't need hold lock to protect block_rsv.
+		 * we expand more reservation size here to allow enough
+		 * space for relocation and we will return eailer in
+		 * enospc case.
+		 */
+		rc->block_rsv->size = tmp + rc->extent_root->nodesize *
+			RELOCATION_RESERVED_NODES;
+		return -EAGAIN;
 	}
 
 	return 0;