diff --git a/fs/btrfs/btrfs_inode.h b/fs/btrfs/btrfs_inode.h
index 6265edb..ce2c9d6 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/btrfs_inode.h
+++ b/fs/btrfs/btrfs_inode.h
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 #define BTRFS_INODE_DUMMY			2
 #define BTRFS_INODE_IN_DEFRAG			3
 #define BTRFS_INODE_DELALLOC_META_RESERVED	4
+#define BTRFS_INODE_HAS_ORPHAN_ITEM		5
 
 /* in memory btrfs inode */
 struct btrfs_inode {
@@ -70,9 +71,6 @@
 	/* used to order data wrt metadata */
 	struct btrfs_ordered_inode_tree ordered_tree;
 
-	/* for keeping track of orphaned inodes */
-	struct list_head i_orphan;
-
 	/* list of all the delalloc inodes in the FS.  There are times we need
 	 * to write all the delalloc pages to disk, and this list is used
 	 * to walk them all.
diff --git a/fs/btrfs/ctree.h b/fs/btrfs/ctree.h
index 8fd7233..aad2600 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/ctree.h
+++ b/fs/btrfs/ctree.h
@@ -1375,7 +1375,7 @@
 	struct list_head root_list;
 
 	spinlock_t orphan_lock;
-	struct list_head orphan_list;
+	atomic_t orphan_inodes;
 	struct btrfs_block_rsv *orphan_block_rsv;
 	int orphan_item_inserted;
 	int orphan_cleanup_state;
diff --git a/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c b/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
index 0cf8ef2..297e5a8 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/disk-io.c
@@ -1153,7 +1153,6 @@
 	root->orphan_block_rsv = NULL;
 
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&root->dirty_list);
-	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&root->orphan_list);
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&root->root_list);
 	spin_lock_init(&root->orphan_lock);
 	spin_lock_init(&root->inode_lock);
@@ -1166,6 +1165,7 @@
 	atomic_set(&root->log_commit[0], 0);
 	atomic_set(&root->log_commit[1], 0);
 	atomic_set(&root->log_writers, 0);
+	atomic_set(&root->orphan_inodes, 0);
 	root->log_batch = 0;
 	root->log_transid = 0;
 	root->last_log_commit = 0;
diff --git a/fs/btrfs/inode.c b/fs/btrfs/inode.c
index 91ad639..0298928 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/inode.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/inode.c
@@ -2104,12 +2104,12 @@
 	struct btrfs_block_rsv *block_rsv;
 	int ret;
 
-	if (!list_empty(&root->orphan_list) ||
+	if (atomic_read(&root->orphan_inodes) ||
 	    root->orphan_cleanup_state != ORPHAN_CLEANUP_DONE)
 		return;
 
 	spin_lock(&root->orphan_lock);
-	if (!list_empty(&root->orphan_list)) {
+	if (atomic_read(&root->orphan_inodes)) {
 		spin_unlock(&root->orphan_lock);
 		return;
 	}
@@ -2166,8 +2166,8 @@
 		block_rsv = NULL;
 	}
 
-	if (list_empty(&BTRFS_I(inode)->i_orphan)) {
-		list_add(&BTRFS_I(inode)->i_orphan, &root->orphan_list);
+	if (!test_and_set_bit(BTRFS_INODE_HAS_ORPHAN_ITEM,
+			      &BTRFS_I(inode)->runtime_flags)) {
 #if 0
 		/*
 		 * For proper ENOSPC handling, we should do orphan
@@ -2180,6 +2180,7 @@
 			insert = 1;
 #endif
 		insert = 1;
+		atomic_dec(&root->orphan_inodes);
 	}
 
 	if (!test_and_set_bit(BTRFS_INODE_ORPHAN_META_RESERVED,
@@ -2197,6 +2198,8 @@
 	if (insert >= 1) {
 		ret = btrfs_insert_orphan_item(trans, root, btrfs_ino(inode));
 		if (ret && ret != -EEXIST) {
+			clear_bit(BTRFS_INODE_HAS_ORPHAN_ITEM,
+				  &BTRFS_I(inode)->runtime_flags);
 			btrfs_abort_transaction(trans, root, ret);
 			return ret;
 		}
@@ -2227,10 +2230,9 @@
 	int ret = 0;
 
 	spin_lock(&root->orphan_lock);
-	if (!list_empty(&BTRFS_I(inode)->i_orphan)) {
-		list_del_init(&BTRFS_I(inode)->i_orphan);
+	if (test_and_clear_bit(BTRFS_INODE_HAS_ORPHAN_ITEM,
+			       &BTRFS_I(inode)->runtime_flags))
 		delete_item = 1;
-	}
 
 	if (test_and_clear_bit(BTRFS_INODE_ORPHAN_META_RESERVED,
 			       &BTRFS_I(inode)->runtime_flags))
@@ -2242,8 +2244,10 @@
 		BUG_ON(ret); /* -ENOMEM or corruption (JDM: Recheck) */
 	}
 
-	if (release_rsv)
+	if (release_rsv) {
 		btrfs_orphan_release_metadata(inode);
+		atomic_dec(&root->orphan_inodes);
+	}
 
 	return 0;
 }
@@ -2371,6 +2375,8 @@
 				ret = PTR_ERR(trans);
 				goto out;
 			}
+			printk(KERN_ERR "auto deleting %Lu\n",
+			       found_key.objectid);
 			ret = btrfs_del_orphan_item(trans, root,
 						    found_key.objectid);
 			BUG_ON(ret); /* -ENOMEM or corruption (JDM: Recheck) */
@@ -2382,9 +2388,8 @@
 		 * add this inode to the orphan list so btrfs_orphan_del does
 		 * the proper thing when we hit it
 		 */
-		spin_lock(&root->orphan_lock);
-		list_add(&BTRFS_I(inode)->i_orphan, &root->orphan_list);
-		spin_unlock(&root->orphan_lock);
+		set_bit(BTRFS_INODE_HAS_ORPHAN_ITEM,
+			&BTRFS_I(inode)->runtime_flags);
 
 		/* if we have links, this was a truncate, lets do that */
 		if (inode->i_nlink) {
@@ -3706,7 +3711,8 @@
 	btrfs_wait_ordered_range(inode, 0, (u64)-1);
 
 	if (root->fs_info->log_root_recovering) {
-		BUG_ON(!list_empty(&BTRFS_I(inode)->i_orphan));
+		BUG_ON(!test_bit(BTRFS_INODE_HAS_ORPHAN_ITEM,
+				 &BTRFS_I(inode)->runtime_flags));
 		goto no_delete;
 	}
 
@@ -6903,7 +6909,6 @@
 	mutex_init(&ei->log_mutex);
 	mutex_init(&ei->delalloc_mutex);
 	btrfs_ordered_inode_tree_init(&ei->ordered_tree);
-	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&ei->i_orphan);
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&ei->delalloc_inodes);
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&ei->ordered_operations);
 	RB_CLEAR_NODE(&ei->rb_node);
@@ -6948,13 +6953,12 @@
 		spin_unlock(&root->fs_info->ordered_extent_lock);
 	}
 
-	spin_lock(&root->orphan_lock);
-	if (!list_empty(&BTRFS_I(inode)->i_orphan)) {
+	if (test_bit(BTRFS_INODE_HAS_ORPHAN_ITEM,
+		     &BTRFS_I(inode)->runtime_flags)) {
 		printk(KERN_INFO "BTRFS: inode %llu still on the orphan list\n",
 		       (unsigned long long)btrfs_ino(inode));
-		list_del_init(&BTRFS_I(inode)->i_orphan);
+		atomic_dec(&root->orphan_inodes);
 	}
-	spin_unlock(&root->orphan_lock);
 
 	while (1) {
 		ordered = btrfs_lookup_first_ordered_extent(inode, (u64)-1);