diff --git a/pageserver/src/lib.rs b/pageserver/src/lib.rs
index fe5114a247..c75f940386 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/lib.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/lib.rs
@@ -46,6 +46,8 @@ pub const DELTA_FILE_MAGIC: u16 = 0x5A61;
 
 pub const LOG_FILE_NAME: &str = "pageserver.log";
 
+static ZERO_PAGE: bytes::Bytes = bytes::Bytes::from_static(&[0u8; 8192]);
+
 /// Config for the Repository checkpointer
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy)]
 pub enum CheckpointConfig {
diff --git a/pageserver/src/pgdatadir_mapping.rs b/pageserver/src/pgdatadir_mapping.rs
index 424ce4769a..ca931ed37d 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/pgdatadir_mapping.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/pgdatadir_mapping.rs
@@ -1373,6 +1373,17 @@ fn is_rel_block_key(key: Key) -> bool {
     key.field1 == 0x00 && key.field4 != 0
 }
 
+pub fn is_rel_fsm_block_key(key: Key) -> bool {
+    key.field1 == 0x00 && key.field4 != 0 && key.field5 == FSM_FORKNUM && key.field6 != 0xffffffff
+}
+
+pub fn is_rel_vm_block_key(key: Key) -> bool {
+    key.field1 == 0x00
+        && key.field4 != 0
+        && key.field5 == VISIBILITYMAP_FORKNUM
+        && key.field6 != 0xffffffff
+}
+
 pub fn key_to_slru_block(key: Key) -> Result<(SlruKind, u32, BlockNumber)> {
     Ok(match key.field1 {
         0x01 => {
diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
index a771f82caf..d6ce644bb5 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/timeline.rs
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ use crate::keyspace::{KeyPartitioning, KeySpace};
 use crate::metrics::TimelineMetrics;
 use crate::pgdatadir_mapping::BlockNumber;
 use crate::pgdatadir_mapping::LsnForTimestamp;
+use crate::pgdatadir_mapping::{is_rel_fsm_block_key, is_rel_vm_block_key};
 use crate::reltag::RelTag;
 use crate::tenant_config::TenantConfOpt;
 
@@ -52,6 +53,7 @@ use crate::task_mgr::TaskKind;
 use crate::walreceiver::{is_etcd_client_initialized, spawn_connection_manager_task};
 use crate::walredo::WalRedoManager;
 use crate::CheckpointConfig;
+use crate::ZERO_PAGE;
 use crate::{
     page_cache,
     storage_sync::{self, index::LayerFileMetadata},
@@ -1496,7 +1498,32 @@ impl Timeline {
                 for range in &partition.ranges {
                     let mut key = range.start;
                     while key < range.end {
-                        let img = self.get(key, lsn)?;
+                        let img = match self.get(key, lsn) {
+                            Ok(img) => img,
+                            Err(err) => {
+                                // If we fail to reconstruct a VM or FSM page, we can zero the
+                                // page without losing any actual user data. That seems better
+                                // than failing repeatedly and getting stuck.
+                                //
+                                // We had a bug at one point, where we truncated the FSM and VM
+                                // in the pageserver, but the Postgres didn't know about that
+                                // and continued to generate incremental WAL records for pages
+                                // that didn't exist in the pageserver. Trying to replay those
+                                // WAL records failed to find the previous image of the page.
+                                // This special case allows us to recover from that situation.
+                                // See https://github.com/neondatabase/neon/issues/2601.
+                                //
+                                // Unfortunately we cannot do this for the main fork, or for
+                                // any metadata keys, keys, as that would lead to actual data
+                                // loss.
+                                if is_rel_fsm_block_key(key) || is_rel_vm_block_key(key) {
+                                    warn!("could not reconstruct FSM or VM key {key}, filling with zeros: {err:?}");
+                                    ZERO_PAGE.clone()
+                                } else {
+                                    return Err(err);
+                                }
+                            }
+                        };
                         image_layer_writer.put_image(key, &img)?;
                         key = key.next();
                     }
diff --git a/pageserver/src/walingest.rs b/pageserver/src/walingest.rs
index d3d2c6d9b2..9a6b99d991 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/walingest.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/walingest.rs
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ use crate::pgdatadir_mapping::*;
 use crate::reltag::{RelTag, SlruKind};
 use crate::tenant::Timeline;
 use crate::walrecord::*;
+use crate::ZERO_PAGE;
 use postgres_ffi::pg_constants;
 use postgres_ffi::relfile_utils::{FSM_FORKNUM, MAIN_FORKNUM, VISIBILITYMAP_FORKNUM};
 use postgres_ffi::v14::nonrelfile_utils::mx_offset_to_member_segment;
@@ -43,8 +44,6 @@ use postgres_ffi::TransactionId;
 use postgres_ffi::BLCKSZ;
 use utils::lsn::Lsn;
 
-static ZERO_PAGE: Bytes = Bytes::from_static(&[0u8; 8192]);
-
 pub struct WalIngest<'a> {
     timeline: &'a Timeline,