diff --git a/include/libtorrent/block_cache.hpp b/include/libtorrent/block_cache.hpp
index 45fce7a5c..6e0d77631 100644
--- a/include/libtorrent/block_cache.hpp
+++ b/include/libtorrent/block_cache.hpp
@@ -440,7 +440,8 @@ namespace libtorrent
 		// used to convert dirty blocks into non-dirty ones
 		// i.e. from being part of the write cache to being part
 		// of the read cache. it's used when flushing blocks to disk
-		void blocks_flushed(cached_piece_entry* pe, int const* flushed, int num_flushed);
+		// returns true if the piece entry was freed
+		bool blocks_flushed(cached_piece_entry* pe, int const* flushed, int num_flushed);
 
 		// adds a block to the cache, marks it as dirty and
 		// associates the job with it. When the block is
diff --git a/include/libtorrent/disk_io_thread.hpp b/include/libtorrent/disk_io_thread.hpp
index 4000924d2..aad057c00 100644
--- a/include/libtorrent/disk_io_thread.hpp
+++ b/include/libtorrent/disk_io_thread.hpp
@@ -477,7 +477,8 @@ namespace libtorrent
 			, file::iovec_t* iov, int* flushing, int block_base_index = 0);
 		void flush_iovec(cached_piece_entry* pe, file::iovec_t const* iov, int const* flushing
 			, int num_blocks, storage_error& error);
-		void iovec_flushed(cached_piece_entry* pe
+		// returns true if the piece entry was freed
+		bool iovec_flushed(cached_piece_entry* pe
 			, int* flushing, int num_blocks, int block_offset
 			, storage_error const& error
 			, jobqueue_t& completed_jobs);
diff --git a/src/block_cache.cpp b/src/block_cache.cpp
index 26b76e2d9..59ba2a1a8 100644
--- a/src/block_cache.cpp
+++ b/src/block_cache.cpp
@@ -793,7 +793,7 @@ cached_piece_entry* block_cache::add_dirty_block(disk_io_job* j)
 // (since these blocks now are part of the read cache) the refcounts of the
 // blocks are also decremented by this function. They are expected to have been
 // incremented by the caller.
-void block_cache::blocks_flushed(cached_piece_entry* pe, int const* flushed, int num_flushed)
+bool block_cache::blocks_flushed(cached_piece_entry* pe, int const* flushed, int num_flushed)
 {
 	TORRENT_PIECE_ASSERT(pe->in_use, pe);
 
@@ -817,7 +817,7 @@ void block_cache::blocks_flushed(cached_piece_entry* pe, int const* flushed, int
 	pe->num_dirty -= num_flushed;
 
 	update_cache_state(pe);
-	maybe_free_piece(pe);
+	return maybe_free_piece(pe);
 }
 
 std::pair<block_cache::iterator, block_cache::iterator> block_cache::all_pieces() const
diff --git a/src/disk_io_thread.cpp b/src/disk_io_thread.cpp
index 2d4bbd704..a6189c26f 100644
--- a/src/disk_io_thread.cpp
+++ b/src/disk_io_thread.cpp
@@ -676,7 +676,7 @@ namespace libtorrent
 	// It is necessary to call this function with the blocks produced by
 	// build_iovec, to reset their state to not being flushed anymore
 	// the cache needs to be locked when calling this function
-	void disk_io_thread::iovec_flushed(cached_piece_entry* pe
+	bool disk_io_thread::iovec_flushed(cached_piece_entry* pe
 		, int* flushing, int num_blocks, int block_offset
 		, storage_error const& error
 		, jobqueue_t& completed_jobs)
@@ -691,7 +691,8 @@ namespace libtorrent
 			DLOG("%d ", flushing[i]);
 		DLOG("]\n");
 #endif
-		m_disk_cache.blocks_flushed(pe, flushing, num_blocks);
+		if (m_disk_cache.blocks_flushed(pe, flushing, num_blocks))
+			return true;
 
 		int block_size = m_disk_cache.block_size();
 
@@ -721,6 +722,8 @@ namespace libtorrent
 				j = next;
 			}
 		}
+
+		return false;
 	}
 
 	// issues write operations for blocks in the given
@@ -756,9 +759,8 @@ namespace libtorrent
 
 		TORRENT_PIECE_ASSERT(pe->piece_refcount > 0, pe);
 		--pe->piece_refcount;
-		iovec_flushed(pe, flushing, iov_len, 0, error, completed_jobs);
-
-		m_disk_cache.maybe_free_piece(pe);
+		if (!iovec_flushed(pe, flushing, iov_len, 0, error, completed_jobs))
+			m_disk_cache.maybe_free_piece(pe);
 
 		// if the cache is under high pressure, we need to evict
 		// the blocks we just flushed to make room for more write pieces