diff --git a/cmdline/unix.c b/cmdline/unix.c
index 32861927..f7cd906e 100644
--- a/cmdline/unix.c
+++ b/cmdline/unix.c
@@ -1860,11 +1860,6 @@ int devquery(tommy_list* high, tommy_list* low, int operation, int others)
 {
 	void* (*func)(void* arg) = 0;
 
-	if (operation == DEVICE_DOWN) {
-		/* flush all the disk caches before spinning down */
-		sync();
-	}
-
 #if HAVE_LINUX_DEVICE
 	tommy_node* i;
 	struct stat st;
@@ -1883,6 +1878,17 @@ int devquery(tommy_list* high, tommy_list* low, int operation, int others)
 		uint64_t device = devinfo->device;
 		uint64_t access_stat;
 
+#if HAVE_SYNCFS
+		if (operation == DEVICE_DOWN) {
+			/* flush the high level filesystem before spinning down */
+			int f = open(devinfo->mount, O_RDONLY);
+			if (f >= 0) {
+				syncfs(f);
+				close(f);
+			}
+		}
+#endif
+
 		/* if the major is the null device, find the real one */
 		if (major(device) == 0) {
 			/* obtain the real device */
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 981b1109..e0ad29fa 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ dnl Checks for library functions.
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS([memset strchr strerror strrchr mkdir gettimeofday strtoul])
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS([getopt getopt_long snprintf vsnprintf sigaction])
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS([ftruncate fallocate access])
-AC_CHECK_FUNCS([fsync posix_fadvise sync_file_range])
+AC_CHECK_FUNCS([fsync posix_fadvise sync_file_range syncfs])
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS([getc_unlocked ferror_unlocked fnmatch])
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS([futimes futimens futimesat localtime_r lutimes utimensat])
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS([fstatat flock])