diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant.rs
index cfecf5561c..dc6926f299 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant.rs
@@ -1859,6 +1859,29 @@ impl TenantShard {
             }
         }
 
+        // At this point we've initialized all timelines and are tracking them.
+        // Now compute the layer visibility for all (not offloaded) timelines.
+        let compute_visiblity_for = {
+            let timelines_accessor = self.timelines.lock().unwrap();
+            let mut timelines_offloaded_accessor = self.timelines_offloaded.lock().unwrap();
+
+            timelines_offloaded_accessor.extend(offloaded_timelines_list.into_iter());
+
+            // Before activation, populate each Timeline's GcInfo with information about its children
+            self.initialize_gc_info(&timelines_accessor, &timelines_offloaded_accessor, None);
+
+            timelines_accessor.values().cloned().collect::<Vec<_>>()
+        };
+
+        for tl in compute_visiblity_for {
+            tl.update_layer_visibility().await.with_context(|| {
+                format!(
+                    "failed initial timeline visibility computation {} for tenant {}",
+                    tl.timeline_id, self.tenant_shard_id
+                )
+            })?;
+        }
+
         // Walk through deleted timelines, resume deletion
         for (timeline_id, index_part, remote_timeline_client) in timelines_to_resume_deletions {
             remote_timeline_client
@@ -1878,10 +1901,6 @@ impl TenantShard {
             .context("resume_deletion")
             .map_err(LoadLocalTimelineError::ResumeDeletion)?;
         }
-        {
-            let mut offloaded_timelines_accessor = self.timelines_offloaded.lock().unwrap();
-            offloaded_timelines_accessor.extend(offloaded_timelines_list.into_iter());
-        }
 
         // Stash the preloaded tenant manifest, and upload a new manifest if changed.
         //
@@ -3449,9 +3468,6 @@ impl TenantShard {
                 .values()
                 .filter(|timeline| !(timeline.is_broken() || timeline.is_stopping()));
 
-            // Before activation, populate each Timeline's GcInfo with information about its children
-            self.initialize_gc_info(&timelines_accessor, &timelines_offloaded_accessor, None);
-
             // Spawn gc and compaction loops. The loops will shut themselves
             // down when they notice that the tenant is inactive.
             tasks::start_background_loops(self, background_jobs_can_start);
diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
index a1969ecae6..b8bfc4f936 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
@@ -3422,10 +3422,6 @@ impl Timeline {
         // TenantShard::create_timeline will wait for these uploads to happen before returning, or
         // on retry.
 
-        // Now that we have the full layer map, we may calculate the visibility of layers within it (a global scan)
-        drop(guard); // drop write lock, update_layer_visibility will take a read lock.
-        self.update_layer_visibility().await?;
-
         info!(
             "loaded layer map with {} layers at {}, total physical size: {}",
             num_layers, disk_consistent_lsn, total_physical_size
@@ -5939,7 +5935,7 @@ impl Drop for Timeline {
             if let Ok(mut gc_info) = ancestor.gc_info.write() {
                 if !gc_info.remove_child_not_offloaded(self.timeline_id) {
                     tracing::error!(tenant_id = %self.tenant_shard_id.tenant_id, shard_id = %self.tenant_shard_id.shard_slug(), timeline_id = %self.timeline_id,
-                        "Couldn't remove retain_lsn entry from offloaded timeline's parent: already removed");
+                        "Couldn't remove retain_lsn entry from timeline's parent on drop: already removed");
                 }
             }
         }