diff --git a/fs/ext4/mballoc.c b/fs/ext4/mballoc.c
index 35959f6419864..cdb84142d9445 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/mballoc.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/mballoc.c
@@ -2026,7 +2026,11 @@ ext4_mb_regular_allocator(struct ext4_allocation_context *ac)
 		group = ac->ac_g_ex.fe_group;
 
 		for (i = 0; i < ngroups; group++, i++) {
-			if (group == ngroups)
+			/*
+			 * Artificially restricted ngroups for non-extent
+			 * files makes group > ngroups possible on first loop.
+			 */
+			if (group >= ngroups)
 				group = 0;
 
 			/* This now checks without needing the buddy page */