diff --git a/storage_controller/src/reconciler.rs b/storage_controller/src/reconciler.rs
index 8c3ff13249..e0a854fff7 100644
--- a/storage_controller/src/reconciler.rs
+++ b/storage_controller/src/reconciler.rs
@@ -211,11 +211,12 @@ impl Reconciler {
         lazy: bool,
     ) -> Result<(), ReconcileError> {
         if !node.is_available() && config.mode == LocationConfigMode::Detached {
-            // Attempts to detach from offline nodes may be imitated without doing I/O: a node which is offline
-            // will get fully reconciled wrt the shard's intent state when it is reactivated, irrespective of
-            // what we put into `observed`, in [`crate::service::Service::node_activate_reconcile`]
-            tracing::info!("Node {node} is unavailable during detach: proceeding anyway, it will be detached on next activation");
-            self.observed.locations.remove(&node.get_id());
+            // [`crate::service::Service::node_activate_reconcile`] will update the observed state
+            // when the node comes back online. At that point, the intent and observed states will
+            // be mismatched and a background reconciliation will detach.
+            tracing::info!(
+                "Node {node} is unavailable during detach: proceeding anyway, it will be detached via background reconciliation"
+            );
             return Ok(());
         }