diff --git a/fs/btrfs/block-group.c b/fs/btrfs/block-group.c
index f1a918c07352..94f50bc8df0d 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/block-group.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/block-group.c
@@ -1603,8 +1603,15 @@ void btrfs_reclaim_bgs_work(struct work_struct *work)
 		}
 		spin_unlock(&bg->lock);
 
-		/* Get out fast, in case we're unmounting the filesystem */
-		if (btrfs_fs_closing(fs_info)) {
+		/*
+		 * Get out fast, in case we're read-only or unmounting the
+		 * filesystem. It is OK to drop block groups from the list even
+		 * for the read-only case. As we did sb_start_write(),
+		 * "mount -o remount,ro" won't happen and read-only filesystem
+		 * means it is forced read-only due to a fatal error. So, it
+		 * never gets back to read-write to let us reclaim again.
+		 */
+		if (btrfs_need_cleaner_sleep(fs_info)) {
 			up_write(&space_info->groups_sem);
 			goto next;
 		}