diff --git a/libs/utils/src/crashsafe.rs b/libs/utils/src/crashsafe.rs
index 756b19138c..946fedf6e5 100644
--- a/libs/utils/src/crashsafe.rs
+++ b/libs/utils/src/crashsafe.rs
@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
+use std::os::fd::AsRawFd;
 use std::{
     borrow::Cow,
     fs::{self, File},
     io::{self, Write},
 };
 
+use anyhow::Context;
 use camino::{Utf8Path, Utf8PathBuf};
 
 /// Similar to [`std::fs::create_dir`], except we fsync the
@@ -203,6 +205,25 @@ pub fn overwrite(
     Ok(())
 }
 
+/// Syncs the filesystem for the given file descriptor.
+pub fn syncfs(fd: impl AsRawFd) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
+    // Linux guarantees durability for syncfs.
+    // POSIX doesn't have syncfs, and further does not actually guarantee durability of sync().
+    #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+    {
+        nix::unistd::syncfs(fd.as_raw_fd()).context("syncfs")?;
+    }
+    #[cfg(target_os = "macos")]
+    {
+        // macOS is not a production platform for Neon, don't even bother.
+    }
+    #[cfg(not(any(target_os = "linux", target_os = "macos")))]
+    {
+        compile_error!("Unsupported OS");
+    }
+    Ok(())
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
 
diff --git a/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs b/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs
index 59194ab4bd..d15a0e47a4 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/bin/pageserver.rs
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ use pageserver::{
     virtual_file,
 };
 use postgres_backend::AuthType;
+use utils::crashsafe::syncfs;
 use utils::failpoint_support;
 use utils::logging::TracingErrorLayerEnablement;
 use utils::{
@@ -155,23 +156,7 @@ fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
         };
 
         let started = Instant::now();
-        // Linux guarantees durability for syncfs.
-        // POSIX doesn't have syncfs, and further does not actually guarantee durability of sync().
-        #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
-        {
-            use std::os::fd::AsRawFd;
-            nix::unistd::syncfs(dirfd.as_raw_fd()).context("syncfs")?;
-        }
-        #[cfg(target_os = "macos")]
-        {
-            // macOS is not a production platform for Neon, don't even bother.
-            drop(dirfd);
-        }
-        #[cfg(not(any(target_os = "linux", target_os = "macos")))]
-        {
-            compile_error!("Unsupported OS");
-        }
-
+        syncfs(dirfd)?;
         let elapsed = started.elapsed();
         info!(
             elapsed_ms = elapsed.as_millis(),
diff --git a/safekeeper/src/bin/safekeeper.rs b/safekeeper/src/bin/safekeeper.rs
index 644d5e6eaf..5270934f5e 100644
--- a/safekeeper/src/bin/safekeeper.rs
+++ b/safekeeper/src/bin/safekeeper.rs
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ use std::fs::{self, File};
 use std::io::{ErrorKind, Write};
 use std::str::FromStr;
 use std::sync::Arc;
-use std::time::Duration;
+use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
 use storage_broker::Uri;
 
 use tracing::*;
@@ -373,6 +373,16 @@ async fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
 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"
+    );
+
     info!("starting safekeeper WAL service on {}", conf.listen_pg_addr);
     let pg_listener = tcp_listener::bind(conf.listen_pg_addr.clone()).map_err(|e| {
         error!("failed to bind to address {}: {}", conf.listen_pg_addr, e);
diff --git a/safekeeper/src/wal_storage.rs b/safekeeper/src/wal_storage.rs
index c477fe5c7b..46c260901d 100644
--- a/safekeeper/src/wal_storage.rs
+++ b/safekeeper/src/wal_storage.rs
@@ -179,8 +179,7 @@ impl PhysicalStorage {
             )
         };
 
-        // TODO: do we really know that write_lsn is fully flushed to disk?
-        //      If not, maybe it's better to call fsync() here to be sure?
+        // note: this assumes we fsync'ed whole datadir on start.
         let flush_lsn = write_lsn;
 
         debug!(