diff --git a/fs/btrfs/ctree.c b/fs/btrfs/ctree.c
index f54511dd287e..39c68ef10808 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/ctree.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/ctree.c
@@ -1542,6 +1542,7 @@ noinline int btrfs_cow_block(struct btrfs_trans_handle *trans,
 		       trans->transid, root->fs_info->generation);
 
 	if (!should_cow_block(trans, root, buf)) {
+		trans->dirty = true;
 		*cow_ret = buf;
 		return 0;
 	}
@@ -2762,8 +2763,10 @@ int btrfs_search_slot(struct btrfs_trans_handle *trans, struct btrfs_root
 			 * then we don't want to set the path blocking,
 			 * so we test it here
 			 */
-			if (!should_cow_block(trans, root, b))
+			if (!should_cow_block(trans, root, b)) {
+				trans->dirty = true;
 				goto cow_done;
+			}
 
 			/*
 			 * must have write locks on this node and the
diff --git a/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c b/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c
index a205c6173b5a..a067065efa6b 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c
@@ -7237,7 +7237,7 @@ btrfs_init_new_buffer(struct btrfs_trans_handle *trans, struct btrfs_root *root,
 		set_extent_dirty(&trans->transaction->dirty_pages, buf->start,
 			 buf->start + buf->len - 1, GFP_NOFS);
 	}
-	trans->blocks_used++;
+	trans->dirty = true;
 	/* this returns a buffer locked for blocking */
 	return buf;
 }
diff --git a/fs/btrfs/super.c b/fs/btrfs/super.c
index 1dfc944af59b..cf6d11bb8dcb 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/super.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/super.c
@@ -262,7 +262,7 @@ void __btrfs_abort_transaction(struct btrfs_trans_handle *trans,
 	trans->aborted = errno;
 	/* Nothing used. The other threads that have joined this
 	 * transaction may be able to continue. */
-	if (!trans->blocks_used && list_empty(&trans->new_bgs)) {
+	if (!trans->dirty && list_empty(&trans->new_bgs)) {
 		const char *errstr;
 
 		errstr = btrfs_decode_error(errno);
diff --git a/fs/btrfs/transaction.c b/fs/btrfs/transaction.c
index 240019f36b2a..30dbf315c2d6 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/transaction.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/transaction.c
@@ -472,7 +472,6 @@ start_transaction(struct btrfs_root *root, u64 num_items, unsigned int type,
 
 	h->transid = cur_trans->transid;
 	h->transaction = cur_trans;
-	h->blocks_used = 0;
 	h->bytes_reserved = 0;
 	h->root = root;
 	h->delayed_ref_updates = 0;
diff --git a/fs/btrfs/transaction.h b/fs/btrfs/transaction.h
index 1ba9c3e04191..1cf5de30368a 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/transaction.h
+++ b/fs/btrfs/transaction.h
@@ -88,7 +88,6 @@ struct btrfs_trans_handle {
 	u64 qgroup_reserved;
 	unsigned long use_count;
 	unsigned long blocks_reserved;
-	unsigned long blocks_used;
 	unsigned long delayed_ref_updates;
 	struct btrfs_transaction *transaction;
 	struct btrfs_block_rsv *block_rsv;
@@ -98,6 +97,7 @@ struct btrfs_trans_handle {
 	bool allocating_chunk;
 	bool reloc_reserved;
 	bool sync;
+	bool dirty;
 	unsigned int type;
 	/*
 	 * this root is only needed to validate that the root passed to