diff --git a/drivers/ata/libata-eh.c b/drivers/ata/libata-eh.c
index c69fcce505c0..370462fa8e01 100644
--- a/drivers/ata/libata-eh.c
+++ b/drivers/ata/libata-eh.c
@@ -1322,14 +1322,14 @@ void ata_eh_qc_complete(struct ata_queued_cmd *qc)
  *	should be retried.  To be used from EH.
  *
  *	SCSI midlayer limits the number of retries to scmd->allowed.
- *	scmd->retries is decremented for commands which get retried
+ *	scmd->allowed is incremented for commands which get retried
  *	due to unrelated failures (qc->err_mask is zero).
  */
 void ata_eh_qc_retry(struct ata_queued_cmd *qc)
 {
 	struct scsi_cmnd *scmd = qc->scsicmd;
-	if (!qc->err_mask && scmd->retries)
-		scmd->retries--;
+	if (!qc->err_mask)
+		scmd->allowed++;
 	__ata_eh_qc_complete(qc);
 }