diff --git a/Annex/Tmp.hs b/Annex/Tmp.hs
index d3a191f2dd..008b5fd826 100644
--- a/Annex/Tmp.hs
+++ b/Annex/Tmp.hs
@@ -27,8 +27,9 @@ withOtherTmp a = do
 	addCleanup OtherTmpCleanup cleanupOtherTmp
 	tmpdir <- fromRepo gitAnnexTmpOtherDir
 	tmplck <- fromRepo gitAnnexTmpOtherLock
-	void $ createAnnexDirectory tmpdir
-	withSharedLock (const tmplck) (a tmpdir)
+	withSharedLock (const tmplck) $ do
+		void $ createAnnexDirectory tmpdir
+		a tmpdir
 
 -- | Cleans up any tmp files that were left by a previous
 -- git-annex process that got interrupted or failed to clean up after
diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 1f3481b20b..3e691dfd36 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ git-annex (7.20190130) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
     before versioning was enabled on it.
   * Improved speed of S3 remote by only loading S3 creds once.
   * Display progress bar when getting files from export remotes.
+  * Fix race in cleanup of othertmp directory that could result in a failure
+    attempting to access it.
 
  -- Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>  Wed, 30 Jan 2019 12:30:22 -0400