diff --git a/drivers/block/brd.c b/drivers/block/brd.c
index 2723a70eb85593..cc49a921339f77 100644
--- a/drivers/block/brd.c
+++ b/drivers/block/brd.c
@@ -403,7 +403,6 @@ static struct brd_device *brd_alloc(int i)
 	disk->flags		= GENHD_FL_EXT_DEVT;
 	sprintf(disk->disk_name, "ram%d", i);
 	set_capacity(disk, rd_size * 2);
-	brd->brd_queue->backing_dev_info->capabilities |= BDI_CAP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO;
 
 	/* Tell the block layer that this is not a rotational device */
 	blk_queue_flag_set(QUEUE_FLAG_NONROT, brd->brd_queue);
diff --git a/drivers/block/zram/zram_drv.c b/drivers/block/zram/zram_drv.c
index f9a57f147ee1e6..f336c0d45a6f16 100644
--- a/drivers/block/zram/zram_drv.c
+++ b/drivers/block/zram/zram_drv.c
@@ -408,8 +408,6 @@ static void reset_bdev(struct zram *zram)
 	zram->backing_dev = NULL;
 	zram->old_block_size = 0;
 	zram->bdev = NULL;
-	zram->disk->queue->backing_dev_info->capabilities |=
-				BDI_CAP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO;
 	kvfree(zram->bitmap);
 	zram->bitmap = NULL;
 }
@@ -518,18 +516,6 @@ static ssize_t backing_dev_store(struct device *dev,
 	zram->backing_dev = backing_dev;
 	zram->bitmap = bitmap;
 	zram->nr_pages = nr_pages;
-	/*
-	 * With writeback feature, zram does asynchronous IO so it's no longer
-	 * synchronous device so let's remove synchronous io flag. Othewise,
-	 * upper layer(e.g., swap) could wait IO completion rather than
-	 * (submit and return), which will cause system sluggish.
-	 * Furthermore, when the IO function returns(e.g., swap_readpage),
-	 * upper layer expects IO was done so it could deallocate the page
-	 * freely but in fact, IO is going on so finally could cause
-	 * use-after-free when the IO is really done.
-	 */
-	zram->disk->queue->backing_dev_info->capabilities &=
-			~BDI_CAP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO;
 	up_write(&zram->init_lock);
 
 	pr_info("setup backing device %s\n", file_name);
@@ -1946,8 +1932,7 @@ static int zram_add(void)
 	if (ZRAM_LOGICAL_BLOCK_SIZE == PAGE_SIZE)
 		blk_queue_max_write_zeroes_sectors(zram->disk->queue, UINT_MAX);
 
-	zram->disk->queue->backing_dev_info->capabilities |=
-			(BDI_CAP_STABLE_WRITES | BDI_CAP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO);
+	zram->disk->queue->backing_dev_info->capabilities |= BDI_CAP_STABLE_WRITES;
 	device_add_disk(NULL, zram->disk, zram_disk_attr_groups);
 
 	strlcpy(zram->compressor, default_compressor, sizeof(zram->compressor));
diff --git a/drivers/nvdimm/btt.c b/drivers/nvdimm/btt.c
index 412d21d8f64351..b4184dc9b41eb4 100644
--- a/drivers/nvdimm/btt.c
+++ b/drivers/nvdimm/btt.c
@@ -1540,8 +1540,6 @@ static int btt_blk_init(struct btt *btt)
 	btt->btt_disk->private_data = btt;
 	btt->btt_disk->queue = btt->btt_queue;
 	btt->btt_disk->flags = GENHD_FL_EXT_DEVT;
-	btt->btt_disk->queue->backing_dev_info->capabilities |=
-			BDI_CAP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO;
 
 	blk_queue_logical_block_size(btt->btt_queue, btt->sector_size);
 	blk_queue_max_hw_sectors(btt->btt_queue, UINT_MAX);
diff --git a/drivers/nvdimm/pmem.c b/drivers/nvdimm/pmem.c
index 94790e6e0e4ce1..436b83fb24ad61 100644
--- a/drivers/nvdimm/pmem.c
+++ b/drivers/nvdimm/pmem.c
@@ -478,7 +478,6 @@ static int pmem_attach_disk(struct device *dev,
 	disk->queue		= q;
 	disk->flags		= GENHD_FL_EXT_DEVT;
 	disk->private_data	= pmem;
-	disk->queue->backing_dev_info->capabilities |= BDI_CAP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO;
 	nvdimm_namespace_disk_name(ndns, disk->disk_name);
 	set_capacity(disk, (pmem->size - pmem->pfn_pad - pmem->data_offset)
 			/ 512);
diff --git a/include/linux/backing-dev.h b/include/linux/backing-dev.h
index 52583b6f2ea05d..860ea33571bce5 100644
--- a/include/linux/backing-dev.h
+++ b/include/linux/backing-dev.h
@@ -122,9 +122,6 @@ int bdi_set_max_ratio(struct backing_dev_info *bdi, unsigned int max_ratio);
  * BDI_CAP_NO_WRITEBACK:   Don't write pages back
  * BDI_CAP_NO_ACCT_WB:     Don't automatically account writeback pages
  * BDI_CAP_STRICTLIMIT:    Keep number of dirty pages below bdi threshold.
- *
- * BDI_CAP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO: Device is so fast that asynchronous IO would be
- *			   inefficient.
  */
 #define BDI_CAP_NO_ACCT_DIRTY	0x00000001
 #define BDI_CAP_NO_WRITEBACK	0x00000002
@@ -132,7 +129,6 @@ int bdi_set_max_ratio(struct backing_dev_info *bdi, unsigned int max_ratio);
 #define BDI_CAP_STABLE_WRITES	0x00000008
 #define BDI_CAP_STRICTLIMIT	0x00000010
 #define BDI_CAP_CGROUP_WRITEBACK 0x00000020
-#define BDI_CAP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO	0x00000040
 
 #define BDI_CAP_NO_ACCT_AND_WRITEBACK \
 	(BDI_CAP_NO_WRITEBACK | BDI_CAP_NO_ACCT_DIRTY | BDI_CAP_NO_ACCT_WB)
@@ -174,11 +170,6 @@ static inline int wb_congested(struct bdi_writeback *wb, int cong_bits)
 long congestion_wait(int sync, long timeout);
 long wait_iff_congested(int sync, long timeout);
 
-static inline bool bdi_cap_synchronous_io(struct backing_dev_info *bdi)
-{
-	return bdi->capabilities & BDI_CAP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO;
-}
-
 static inline bool bdi_cap_stable_pages_required(struct backing_dev_info *bdi)
 {
 	return bdi->capabilities & BDI_CAP_STABLE_WRITES;
diff --git a/mm/swapfile.c b/mm/swapfile.c
index 6c26916e95fd4a..18eac97b10e502 100644
--- a/mm/swapfile.c
+++ b/mm/swapfile.c
@@ -3230,7 +3230,7 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE2(swapon, const char __user *, specialfile, int, swap_flags)
 	if (bdi_cap_stable_pages_required(inode_to_bdi(inode)))
 		p->flags |= SWP_STABLE_WRITES;
 
-	if (bdi_cap_synchronous_io(inode_to_bdi(inode)))
+	if (p->bdev && p->bdev->bd_disk->fops->rw_page)
 		p->flags |= SWP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO;
 
 	if (p->bdev && blk_queue_nonrot(bdev_get_queue(p->bdev))) {
