diff --git a/drivers/md/md.c b/drivers/md/md.c
index 52f9865096c6..e57213dacd25 100644
--- a/drivers/md/md.c
+++ b/drivers/md/md.c
@@ -3691,6 +3691,8 @@ static int do_md_stop(mddev_t * mddev, int mode)
 
 			module_put(mddev->pers->owner);
 			mddev->pers = NULL;
+			/* tell userspace to handle 'inactive' */
+			sysfs_notify(&mddev->kobj, NULL, "array_state");
 
 			set_capacity(disk, 0);
 			mddev->changed = 1;