diff --git a/msm/msm_atomic.c b/msm/msm_atomic.c
index 6bddb33d9824..953fd3b174e1 100644
--- a/msm/msm_atomic.c
+++ b/msm/msm_atomic.c
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2016-2020, The Linux Foundation. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 2016-2021, The Linux Foundation. All rights reserved.
  * Copyright (C) 2014 Red Hat
  * Author: Rob Clark <robdclark@gmail.com>
  *
@@ -689,6 +689,16 @@ int msm_atomic_commit(struct drm_device *dev,
 		c->plane_mask |= (1 << drm_plane_index(plane));
 	}
 
+	/* Protection for prepare_fence callback */
+retry:
+	ret = drm_modeset_lock(&state->dev->mode_config.connection_mutex,
+		state->acquire_ctx);
+
+	if (ret == -EDEADLK) {
+		drm_modeset_backoff(state->acquire_ctx);
+		goto retry;
+	}
+
 	/*
 	 * Wait for pending updates on any of the same crtc's and then
 	 * mark our set of crtc's as busy:
diff --git a/msm/sde/sde_kms.c b/msm/sde/sde_kms.c
index 0b36b0b2d0e7..78bcf7aed5be 100644
--- a/msm/sde/sde_kms.c
+++ b/msm/sde/sde_kms.c
@@ -1589,7 +1589,7 @@ static void sde_kms_prepare_fence(struct msm_kms *kms,
 {
 	struct drm_crtc *crtc;
 	struct drm_crtc_state *old_crtc_state;
-	int i, rc;
+	int i;
 
 	if (!kms || !old_state || !old_state->dev || !old_state->acquire_ctx) {
 		SDE_ERROR("invalid argument(s)\n");
@@ -1597,15 +1597,6 @@ static void sde_kms_prepare_fence(struct msm_kms *kms,
 	}
 
 	SDE_ATRACE_BEGIN("sde_kms_prepare_fence");
-retry:
-	/* attempt to acquire ww mutex for connection */
-	rc = drm_modeset_lock(&old_state->dev->mode_config.connection_mutex,
-			       old_state->acquire_ctx);
-
-	if (rc == -EDEADLK) {
-		drm_modeset_backoff(old_state->acquire_ctx);
-		goto retry;
-	}
 
 	/* old_state actually contains updated crtc pointers */
 	for_each_old_crtc_in_state(old_state, crtc, old_crtc_state, i) {