diff --git a/safekeeper/src/bin/safekeeper.rs b/safekeeper/src/bin/safekeeper.rs
index 5270934f5e..1e5f963a4f 100644
--- a/safekeeper/src/bin/safekeeper.rs
+++ b/safekeeper/src/bin/safekeeper.rs
@@ -374,14 +374,16 @@ type JoinTaskRes = Result<anyhow::Result<()>, JoinError>;
 
 async fn start_safekeeper(conf: SafeKeeperConf) -> Result<()> {
     // fsync the datadir to make sure we have a consistent state on disk.
-    let dfd = File::open(&conf.workdir).context("open datadir for syncfs")?;
-    let started = Instant::now();
-    utils::crashsafe::syncfs(dfd)?;
-    let elapsed = started.elapsed();
-    info!(
-        elapsed_ms = elapsed.as_millis(),
-        "syncfs data directory done"
-    );
+    if !conf.no_sync {
+        let dfd = File::open(&conf.workdir).context("open datadir for syncfs")?;
+        let started = Instant::now();
+        utils::crashsafe::syncfs(dfd)?;
+        let elapsed = started.elapsed();
+        info!(
+            elapsed_ms = elapsed.as_millis(),
+            "syncfs data directory done"
+        );
+    }
 
     info!("starting safekeeper WAL service on {}", conf.listen_pg_addr);
     let pg_listener = tcp_listener::bind(conf.listen_pg_addr.clone()).map_err(|e| {