diff --git a/mm/sparse.c b/mm/sparse.c
index 596b2a45b100..aadb7298dcef 100644
--- a/mm/sparse.c
+++ b/mm/sparse.c
@@ -734,6 +734,7 @@ static void section_deactivate(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages,
 	struct mem_section *ms = __pfn_to_section(pfn);
 	bool section_is_early = early_section(ms);
 	struct page *memmap = NULL;
+	bool empty;
 	unsigned long *subsection_map = ms->usage
 		? &ms->usage->subsection_map[0] : NULL;
 
@@ -764,7 +765,8 @@ static void section_deactivate(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages,
 	 * For 2/ and 3/ the SPARSEMEM_VMEMMAP={y,n} cases are unified
 	 */
 	bitmap_xor(subsection_map, map, subsection_map, SUBSECTIONS_PER_SECTION);
-	if (bitmap_empty(subsection_map, SUBSECTIONS_PER_SECTION)) {
+	empty = bitmap_empty(subsection_map, SUBSECTIONS_PER_SECTION);
+	if (empty) {
 		unsigned long section_nr = pfn_to_section_nr(pfn);
 
 		/*
@@ -779,13 +781,15 @@ static void section_deactivate(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages,
 			ms->usage = NULL;
 		}
 		memmap = sparse_decode_mem_map(ms->section_mem_map, section_nr);
-		ms->section_mem_map = (unsigned long)NULL;
 	}
 
 	if (section_is_early && memmap)
 		free_map_bootmem(memmap);
 	else
 		depopulate_section_memmap(pfn, nr_pages, altmap);
+
+	if (empty)
+		ms->section_mem_map = (unsigned long)NULL;
 }
 
 static struct page * __meminit section_activate(int nid, unsigned long pfn,