diff --git a/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c b/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c
index 9601c538bc..dbe9156f06 100644
--- a/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c
+++ b/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c
@@ -822,7 +822,7 @@ static int dir_cleanup(
 
                         fd = xopenat(dirfd(d),
                                      de->d_name,
-                                     O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC|O_NOFOLLOW|O_NOATIME,
+                                     O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC|O_NOFOLLOW|O_NOATIME|O_NONBLOCK,
                                      /* xopen_flags = */ 0,
                                      /* mode = */ 0);
                         if (fd < 0 && !IN_SET(fd, -ENOENT, -ELOOP))