diff --git a/Annex/Init.hs b/Annex/Init.hs
index 6ab6daffde..ce8a314400 100644
--- a/Annex/Init.hs
+++ b/Annex/Init.hs
@@ -264,10 +264,12 @@ probeFifoSupport = do
 #endif
 
 checkLockSupport :: Annex ()
-checkLockSupport = unlessM probeLockSupport $ do
-	warning "Detected a filesystem without POSIX fcntl lock support."
-	warning "Enabling annex.pidlock."
-	setConfig (annexConfig "pidlock") (Git.Config.boolConfig True)
+checkLockSupport =
+	unlessM (annexPidLock <$> Annex.getGitConfig) $
+		unlessM probeLockSupport $ do
+			warning "Detected a filesystem without POSIX fcntl lock support."
+			warning "Enabling annex.pidlock."
+			setConfig (annexConfig "pidlock") (Git.Config.boolConfig True)
 
 checkFifoSupport :: Annex ()
 checkFifoSupport = unlessM probeFifoSupport $ do
diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 7365ca32e1..cb9c3285f5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ git-annex (8.20200523) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
     cleanup actions in separate job pool from uploads. 
   * init: If lock probing stalls for a long time (eg a broken NFS server),
     display a message to let the user know what's taking so long.
+  * init: When annex.pidlock is set, skip lock probing.
 
  -- Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>  Tue, 26 May 2020 10:20:52 -0400
 
diff --git a/doc/todo/faster___40__took_2_min__41___way_to_realize_the_need_in_pidlock__63__.mdwn b/doc/todo/faster___40__took_2_min__41___way_to_realize_the_need_in_pidlock__63__.mdwn
index 0157b2eb75..f71c7af5c3 100644
--- a/doc/todo/faster___40__took_2_min__41___way_to_realize_the_need_in_pidlock__63__.mdwn
+++ b/doc/todo/faster___40__took_2_min__41___way_to_realize_the_need_in_pidlock__63__.mdwn
@@ -214,3 +214,6 @@ At least adding some debug message before running the detection could be of help
 
 [[!meta author=yoh]]
 [[!tag projects/datalad]]
+
+> what I mentioned in the comments is [[done]] --[[Joey]]
+
diff --git a/doc/todo/faster___40__took_2_min__41___way_to_realize_the_need_in_pidlock__63__/comment_3_26f82b5ef0ce9dc0a5a8fc64f4a3b335._comment b/doc/todo/faster___40__took_2_min__41___way_to_realize_the_need_in_pidlock__63__/comment_3_26f82b5ef0ce9dc0a5a8fc64f4a3b335._comment
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1ff45ff2bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/todo/faster___40__took_2_min__41___way_to_realize_the_need_in_pidlock__63__/comment_3_26f82b5ef0ce9dc0a5a8fc64f4a3b335._comment
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+[[!comment format=mdwn
+ username="joey"
+ subject="""comment 3"""
+ date="2020-06-05T15:11:44Z"
+ content="""
+Is this related to your other bug about something seeming to hang/stall?
+"""]]