diff --git a/fs/nilfs2/btnode.c b/fs/nilfs2/btnode.c
index 138ebbb7a1ee..677ff78d54fb 100644
--- a/fs/nilfs2/btnode.c
+++ b/fs/nilfs2/btnode.c
@@ -295,6 +295,14 @@ void nilfs_btnode_abort_change_key(struct address_space *btnc,
 		radix_tree_delete(&btnc->i_pages, newkey);
 		xa_unlock_irq(&btnc->i_pages);
 		unlock_page(ctxt->bh->b_page);
-	} else
-		brelse(nbh);
+	} else {
+		/*
+		 * When canceling a buffer that a prepare operation has
+		 * allocated to copy a node block to another location, use
+		 * nilfs_btnode_delete() to initialize and release the buffer
+		 * so that the buffer flags will not be in an inconsistent
+		 * state when it is reallocated.
+		 */
+		nilfs_btnode_delete(nbh);
+	}
 }