diff --git a/drivers/spi/spi-tegra210-quad.c b/drivers/spi/spi-tegra210-quad.c
index 79aeb80aa4a7..f425d62e0c27 100644
--- a/drivers/spi/spi-tegra210-quad.c
+++ b/drivers/spi/spi-tegra210-quad.c
@@ -1457,6 +1457,11 @@ static irqreturn_t handle_cpu_based_xfer(struct tegra_qspi *tqspi)
 	spin_lock_irqsave(&tqspi->lock, flags);
 	t = tqspi->curr_xfer;
 
+	if (!t) {
+		spin_unlock_irqrestore(&tqspi->lock, flags);
+		return IRQ_HANDLED;
+	}
+
 	if (tqspi->tx_status ||  tqspi->rx_status) {
 		tegra_qspi_handle_error(tqspi);
 		complete(&tqspi->xfer_completion);
@@ -1527,6 +1532,11 @@ static irqreturn_t handle_dma_based_xfer(struct tegra_qspi *tqspi)
 	spin_lock_irqsave(&tqspi->lock, flags);
 	t = tqspi->curr_xfer;
 
+	if (!t) {
+		spin_unlock_irqrestore(&tqspi->lock, flags);
+		return IRQ_HANDLED;
+	}
+
 	if (num_errors) {
 		tegra_qspi_dma_unmap_xfer(tqspi, t);
 		tegra_qspi_handle_error(tqspi);
@@ -1565,6 +1575,7 @@ exit:
 static irqreturn_t tegra_qspi_isr_thread(int irq, void *context_data)
 {
 	struct tegra_qspi *tqspi = context_data;
+	unsigned long flags;
 	u32 status;
 
 	/*
@@ -1582,7 +1593,9 @@ static irqreturn_t tegra_qspi_isr_thread(int irq, void *context_data)
 	 * If no transfer is in progress, check if this was a real interrupt
 	 * that the timeout handler already processed, or a spurious one.
 	 */
+	spin_lock_irqsave(&tqspi->lock, flags);
 	if (!tqspi->curr_xfer) {
+		spin_unlock_irqrestore(&tqspi->lock, flags);
 		/* Spurious interrupt - transfer not ready */
 		if (!(status & QSPI_RDY))
 			return IRQ_NONE;
@@ -1599,7 +1612,14 @@ static irqreturn_t tegra_qspi_isr_thread(int irq, void *context_data)
 		tqspi->rx_status = tqspi->status_reg & (QSPI_RX_FIFO_OVF | QSPI_RX_FIFO_UNF);
 
 	tegra_qspi_mask_clear_irq(tqspi);
+	spin_unlock_irqrestore(&tqspi->lock, flags);
 
+	/*
+	 * Lock is released here but handlers safely re-check curr_xfer under
+	 * lock before dereferencing.
+	 * DMA handler also needs to sleep in wait_for_completion_*(), which
+	 * cannot be done while holding spinlock.
+	 */
 	if (!tqspi->is_curr_dma_xfer)
 		return handle_cpu_based_xfer(tqspi);