diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_buf_item.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_buf_item.c
index 47549cfa61cd..f4b9cd959b68 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_buf_item.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_buf_item.c
@@ -900,6 +900,7 @@ xfs_buf_item_init(
 		map_size = DIV_ROUND_UP(chunks, NBWORD);
 
 		if (map_size > XFS_BLF_DATAMAP_SIZE) {
+			xfs_buf_item_free_format(bip);
 			kmem_cache_free(xfs_buf_item_cache, bip);
 			xfs_err(mp,
 	"buffer item dirty bitmap (%u uints) too small to reflect %u bytes!",