diff --git a/fs/btrfs/delayed-inode.c b/fs/btrfs/delayed-inode.c
index f9dae729811b..5da7442a1d96 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/delayed-inode.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/delayed-inode.c
@@ -1413,7 +1413,29 @@ void btrfs_balance_delayed_items(struct btrfs_fs_info *fs_info)
 	btrfs_wq_run_delayed_node(delayed_root, fs_info, BTRFS_DELAYED_BATCH);
 }
 
-/* Will return 0 or -ENOMEM */
+static void btrfs_release_dir_index_item_space(struct btrfs_trans_handle *trans)
+{
+	struct btrfs_fs_info *fs_info = trans->fs_info;
+	const u64 bytes = btrfs_calc_insert_metadata_size(fs_info, 1);
+
+	if (test_bit(BTRFS_FS_LOG_RECOVERING, &fs_info->flags))
+		return;
+
+	/*
+	 * Adding the new dir index item does not require touching another
+	 * leaf, so we can release 1 unit of metadata that was previously
+	 * reserved when starting the transaction. This applies only to
+	 * the case where we had a transaction start and excludes the
+	 * transaction join case (when replaying log trees).
+	 */
+	trace_btrfs_space_reservation(fs_info, "transaction",
+				      trans->transid, bytes, 0);
+	btrfs_block_rsv_release(fs_info, trans->block_rsv, bytes, NULL);
+	ASSERT(trans->bytes_reserved >= bytes);
+	trans->bytes_reserved -= bytes;
+}
+
+/* Will return 0, -ENOMEM or -EEXIST (index number collision, unexpected). */
 int btrfs_insert_delayed_dir_index(struct btrfs_trans_handle *trans,
 				   const char *name, int name_len,
 				   struct btrfs_inode *dir,
@@ -1455,6 +1477,27 @@ int btrfs_insert_delayed_dir_index(struct btrfs_trans_handle *trans,
 
 	mutex_lock(&delayed_node->mutex);
 
+	/*
+	 * First attempt to insert the delayed item. This is to make the error
+	 * handling path simpler in case we fail (-EEXIST). There's no risk of
+	 * any other task coming in and running the delayed item before we do
+	 * the metadata space reservation below, because we are holding the
+	 * delayed node's mutex and that mutex must also be locked before the
+	 * node's delayed items can be run.
+	 */
+	ret = __btrfs_add_delayed_item(delayed_node, delayed_item);
+	if (unlikely(ret)) {
+		btrfs_err(trans->fs_info,
+"error adding delayed dir index item, name: %.*s, index: %llu, root: %llu, dir: %llu, dir->index_cnt: %llu, delayed_node->index_cnt: %llu, error: %d",
+			  name_len, name, index, btrfs_root_id(delayed_node->root),
+			  delayed_node->inode_id, dir->index_cnt,
+			  delayed_node->index_cnt, ret);
+		mutex_unlock(&delayed_node->mutex);
+		btrfs_release_delayed_item(delayed_item);
+		btrfs_release_dir_index_item_space(trans);
+		goto release_node;
+	}
+
 	if (delayed_node->index_item_leaves == 0 ||
 	    delayed_node->curr_index_batch_size + data_len > leaf_data_size) {
 		delayed_node->curr_index_batch_size = data_len;
@@ -1478,31 +1521,8 @@ int btrfs_insert_delayed_dir_index(struct btrfs_trans_handle *trans,
 		}
 
 		delayed_node->index_item_leaves++;
-	} else if (!test_bit(BTRFS_FS_LOG_RECOVERING, &fs_info->flags)) {
-		const u64 bytes = btrfs_calc_insert_metadata_size(fs_info, 1);
-
-		/*
-		 * Adding the new dir index item does not require touching another
-		 * leaf, so we can release 1 unit of metadata that was previously
-		 * reserved when starting the transaction. This applies only to
-		 * the case where we had a transaction start and excludes the
-		 * transaction join case (when replaying log trees).
-		 */
-		trace_btrfs_space_reservation(fs_info, "transaction",
-					      trans->transid, bytes, 0);
-		btrfs_block_rsv_release(fs_info, trans->block_rsv, bytes, NULL);
-		ASSERT(trans->bytes_reserved >= bytes);
-		trans->bytes_reserved -= bytes;
-	}
-
-	ret = __btrfs_add_delayed_item(delayed_node, delayed_item);
-	if (unlikely(ret)) {
-		btrfs_err(trans->fs_info,
-"error adding delayed dir index item, name: %.*s, index: %llu, root: %llu, dir: %llu, dir->index_cnt: %llu, delayed_node->index_cnt: %llu, error: %d",
-			  name_len, name, index, btrfs_root_id(delayed_node->root),
-			  delayed_node->inode_id, dir->index_cnt,
-			  delayed_node->index_cnt, ret);
-		BUG();
+	} else {
+		btrfs_release_dir_index_item_space(trans);
 	}
 	mutex_unlock(&delayed_node->mutex);
 
