diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
index bf4e19e5fb..e252ee584e 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
@@ -801,7 +801,12 @@ impl Timeline {
                     .access_stats_behavior(AccessStatsBehavior::Skip)
                     .build();
 
-                // 2. Create new image layers for partitions that have been modified
+                // 2. Compact
+                let timer = self.metrics.compact_time_histo.start_timer();
+                self.compact_level0(target_file_size, ctx).await?;
+                timer.stop_and_record();
+
+                // 3. Create new image layers for partitions that have been modified
                 // "enough".
                 let layers = self
                     .create_image_layers(&partitioning, lsn, false, &image_ctx)
@@ -813,11 +818,6 @@ impl Timeline {
                     }
                 }
 
-                // 3. Compact
-                let timer = self.metrics.compact_time_histo.start_timer();
-                self.compact_level0(target_file_size, ctx).await?;
-                timer.stop_and_record();
-
                 if let Some(remote_client) = &self.remote_client {
                     // should any new image layer been created, not uploading index_part will
                     // result in a mismatch between remote_physical_size and layermap calculated
diff --git a/test_runner/regress/test_layers_from_future.py b/test_runner/regress/test_layers_from_future.py
index b36c927628..7ce0bdaeba 100644
--- a/test_runner/regress/test_layers_from_future.py
+++ b/test_runner/regress/test_layers_from_future.py
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ def test_issue_5878(neon_env_builder: NeonEnvBuilder):
         "compaction_period": "0s",  # we want to control when compaction runs
         "checkpoint_timeout": "24h",  # something we won't reach
         "checkpoint_distance": f"{50 * (1024**2)}",  # something we won't reach, we checkpoint manually
-        "image_creation_threshold": f"{image_creation_threshold}",
+        "image_creation_threshold": "100",  # we want to control when image is created
         "compaction_threshold": f"{l0_l1_threshold}",
         "compaction_target_size": f"{128 * (1024**3)}",  # make it so that we only have 1 partition => image coverage for delta layers => enables gc of delta layers
     }
@@ -124,6 +124,10 @@ def test_issue_5878(neon_env_builder: NeonEnvBuilder):
     ), "sanity check for what above loop is supposed to do"
 
     # create the image layer from the future
+    ps_http.patch_tenant_config_client_side(
+        tenant_id, {"image_creation_threshold": image_creation_threshold}, None
+    )
+    assert ps_http.tenant_config(tenant_id).effective_config["image_creation_threshold"] == 1
     ps_http.timeline_compact(tenant_id, timeline_id, force_repartition=True)
     assert (
         len(