diff --git a/mm/memcontrol.c b/mm/memcontrol.c
index ef91e856c7e4..b7104a55ae64 100644
--- a/mm/memcontrol.c
+++ b/mm/memcontrol.c
@@ -4679,6 +4679,7 @@ mem_cgroup_css_alloc(struct cgroup_subsys_state *parent_css)
 	if (parent_css == NULL) {
 		root_mem_cgroup = memcg;
 		page_counter_init(&memcg->memory, NULL);
+		memcg->soft_limit = PAGE_COUNTER_MAX;
 		page_counter_init(&memcg->memsw, NULL);
 		page_counter_init(&memcg->kmem, NULL);
 	}
@@ -4724,6 +4725,7 @@ mem_cgroup_css_online(struct cgroup_subsys_state *css)
 
 	if (parent->use_hierarchy) {
 		page_counter_init(&memcg->memory, &parent->memory);
+		memcg->soft_limit = PAGE_COUNTER_MAX;
 		page_counter_init(&memcg->memsw, &parent->memsw);
 		page_counter_init(&memcg->kmem, &parent->kmem);
 
@@ -4733,6 +4735,7 @@ mem_cgroup_css_online(struct cgroup_subsys_state *css)
 		 */
 	} else {
 		page_counter_init(&memcg->memory, NULL);
+		memcg->soft_limit = PAGE_COUNTER_MAX;
 		page_counter_init(&memcg->memsw, NULL);
 		page_counter_init(&memcg->kmem, NULL);
 		/*
@@ -4807,7 +4810,7 @@ static void mem_cgroup_css_reset(struct cgroup_subsys_state *css)
 	mem_cgroup_resize_limit(memcg, PAGE_COUNTER_MAX);
 	mem_cgroup_resize_memsw_limit(memcg, PAGE_COUNTER_MAX);
 	memcg_update_kmem_limit(memcg, PAGE_COUNTER_MAX);
-	memcg->soft_limit = 0;
+	memcg->soft_limit = PAGE_COUNTER_MAX;
 }
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_MMU