diff --git a/block/io.c b/block/io.c
index 3134a60a48..150358c3b1 100644
--- a/block/io.c
+++ b/block/io.c
@@ -2092,6 +2092,12 @@ static int coroutine_fn bdrv_co_block_status(BlockDriverState *bs,
      */
     assert(*pnum && QEMU_IS_ALIGNED(*pnum, align) &&
            align > offset - aligned_offset);
+    if (ret & BDRV_BLOCK_RECURSE) {
+        assert(ret & BDRV_BLOCK_DATA);
+        assert(ret & BDRV_BLOCK_OFFSET_VALID);
+        assert(!(ret & BDRV_BLOCK_ZERO));
+    }
+
     *pnum -= offset - aligned_offset;
     if (*pnum > bytes) {
         *pnum = bytes;
@@ -2122,7 +2128,8 @@ static int coroutine_fn bdrv_co_block_status(BlockDriverState *bs,
         }
     }
 
-    if (want_zero && local_file && local_file != bs &&
+    if (want_zero && ret & BDRV_BLOCK_RECURSE &&
+        local_file && local_file != bs &&
         (ret & BDRV_BLOCK_DATA) && !(ret & BDRV_BLOCK_ZERO) &&
         (ret & BDRV_BLOCK_OFFSET_VALID)) {
         int64_t file_pnum;
diff --git a/block/qcow2-refcount.c b/block/qcow2-refcount.c
index 4c1794f9af..3a2c673a5e 100644
--- a/block/qcow2-refcount.c
+++ b/block/qcow2-refcount.c
@@ -3444,3 +3444,35 @@ int64_t qcow2_get_last_cluster(BlockDriverState *bs, int64_t size)
                             "There are no references in the refcount table.");
     return -EIO;
 }
+
+int qcow2_detect_metadata_preallocation(BlockDriverState *bs)
+{
+    BDRVQcow2State *s = bs->opaque;
+    int64_t i, end_cluster, cluster_count = 0, threshold;
+    int64_t file_length, real_allocation, real_clusters;
+
+    file_length = bdrv_getlength(bs->file->bs);
+    if (file_length < 0) {
+        return file_length;
+    }
+
+    real_allocation = bdrv_get_allocated_file_size(bs->file->bs);
+    if (real_allocation < 0) {
+        return real_allocation;
+    }
+
+    real_clusters = real_allocation / s->cluster_size;
+    threshold = MAX(real_clusters * 10 / 9, real_clusters + 2);
+
+    end_cluster = size_to_clusters(s, file_length);
+    for (i = 0; i < end_cluster && cluster_count < threshold; i++) {
+        uint64_t refcount;
+        int ret = qcow2_get_refcount(bs, i, &refcount);
+        if (ret < 0) {
+            return ret;
+        }
+        cluster_count += !!refcount;
+    }
+
+    return cluster_count >= threshold;
+}
diff --git a/block/qcow2.c b/block/qcow2.c
index f2cb131048..14f914117f 100644
--- a/block/qcow2.c
+++ b/block/qcow2.c
@@ -1895,6 +1895,12 @@ static int coroutine_fn qcow2_co_block_status(BlockDriverState *bs,
     unsigned int bytes;
     int status = 0;
 
+    if (!s->metadata_preallocation_checked) {
+        ret = qcow2_detect_metadata_preallocation(bs);
+        s->metadata_preallocation = (ret == 1);
+        s->metadata_preallocation_checked = true;
+    }
+
     bytes = MIN(INT_MAX, count);
     qemu_co_mutex_lock(&s->lock);
     ret = qcow2_get_cluster_offset(bs, offset, &bytes, &cluster_offset);
@@ -1917,6 +1923,11 @@ static int coroutine_fn qcow2_co_block_status(BlockDriverState *bs,
     } else if (ret != QCOW2_CLUSTER_UNALLOCATED) {
         status |= BDRV_BLOCK_DATA;
     }
+    if (s->metadata_preallocation && (status & BDRV_BLOCK_DATA) &&
+        (status & BDRV_BLOCK_OFFSET_VALID))
+    {
+        status |= BDRV_BLOCK_RECURSE;
+    }
     return status;
 }
 
diff --git a/block/qcow2.h b/block/qcow2.h
index 567375e56c..fc1b0d3c1e 100644
--- a/block/qcow2.h
+++ b/block/qcow2.h
@@ -356,6 +356,9 @@ typedef struct BDRVQcow2State {
     int nb_threads;
 
     BdrvChild *data_file;
+
+    bool metadata_preallocation_checked;
+    bool metadata_preallocation;
 } BDRVQcow2State;
 
 typedef struct Qcow2COWRegion {
@@ -655,6 +658,7 @@ int qcow2_change_refcount_order(BlockDriverState *bs, int refcount_order,
                                 void *cb_opaque, Error **errp);
 int qcow2_shrink_reftable(BlockDriverState *bs);
 int64_t qcow2_get_last_cluster(BlockDriverState *bs, int64_t size);
+int qcow2_detect_metadata_preallocation(BlockDriverState *bs);
 
 /* qcow2-cluster.c functions */
 int qcow2_grow_l1_table(BlockDriverState *bs, uint64_t min_size,
diff --git a/include/block/block.h b/include/block/block.h
index 9b083e2bca..531cf595cf 100644
--- a/include/block/block.h
+++ b/include/block/block.h
@@ -156,10 +156,15 @@ typedef struct HDGeometry {
  * BDRV_BLOCK_EOF: the returned pnum covers through end of file for this
  *                 layer, set by block layer
  *
- * Internal flag:
+ * Internal flags:
  * BDRV_BLOCK_RAW: for use by passthrough drivers, such as raw, to request
  *                 that the block layer recompute the answer from the returned
  *                 BDS; must be accompanied by just BDRV_BLOCK_OFFSET_VALID.
+ * BDRV_BLOCK_RECURSE: request that the block layer will recursively search for
+ *                     zeroes in file child of current block node inside
+ *                     returned region. Only valid together with both
+ *                     BDRV_BLOCK_DATA and BDRV_BLOCK_OFFSET_VALID. Should not
+ *                     appear with BDRV_BLOCK_ZERO.
  *
  * If BDRV_BLOCK_OFFSET_VALID is set, the map parameter represents the
  * host offset within the returned BDS that is allocated for the
@@ -184,6 +189,7 @@ typedef struct HDGeometry {
 #define BDRV_BLOCK_RAW          0x08
 #define BDRV_BLOCK_ALLOCATED    0x10
 #define BDRV_BLOCK_EOF          0x20
+#define BDRV_BLOCK_RECURSE      0x40
 #define BDRV_BLOCK_OFFSET_MASK  BDRV_SECTOR_MASK
 
 typedef QSIMPLEQ_HEAD(BlockReopenQueue, BlockReopenQueueEntry) BlockReopenQueue;
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/102 b/tests/qemu-iotests/102
index 749ff66b8a..b898df436f 100755
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/102
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/102
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ $QEMU_IO -c 'write 0 64k' "$TEST_IMG" | _filter_qemu_io
 $QEMU_IMG resize -f raw --shrink "$TEST_IMG" $((5 * 64 * 1024))
 
 $QEMU_IO -c map "$TEST_IMG"
-$QEMU_IMG map "$TEST_IMG"
+$QEMU_IMG map "$TEST_IMG" | _filter_qemu_img_map
 
 echo
 echo '=== Testing map on an image file truncated outside of qemu ==='
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/102.out b/tests/qemu-iotests/102.out
index 4401b08fee..cd2fdc7f96 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/102.out
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/102.out
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@ wrote 65536/65536 bytes at offset 0
 64 KiB, X ops; XX:XX:XX.X (XXX YYY/sec and XXX ops/sec)
 Image resized.
 64 KiB (0x10000) bytes     allocated at offset 0 bytes (0x0)
-Offset          Length          Mapped to       File
+Offset          Length          File
+0               0x10000         TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT
 
 === Testing map on an image file truncated outside of qemu ===
 
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/141.out b/tests/qemu-iotests/141.out
index 41c7291258..4d71d9dcae 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/141.out
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/141.out
@@ -42,9 +42,9 @@ Formatting 'TEST_DIR/o.IMGFMT', fmt=IMGFMT size=1048576 backing_file=TEST_DIR/t.
 {"return": {}}
 {"timestamp": {"seconds":  TIMESTAMP, "microseconds":  TIMESTAMP}, "event": "JOB_STATUS_CHANGE", "data": {"status": "created", "id": "job0"}}
 {"timestamp": {"seconds":  TIMESTAMP, "microseconds":  TIMESTAMP}, "event": "JOB_STATUS_CHANGE", "data": {"status": "running", "id": "job0"}}
+{"return": {}}
 {"timestamp": {"seconds":  TIMESTAMP, "microseconds":  TIMESTAMP}, "event": "JOB_STATUS_CHANGE", "data": {"status": "ready", "id": "job0"}}
 {"timestamp": {"seconds":  TIMESTAMP, "microseconds":  TIMESTAMP}, "event": "BLOCK_JOB_READY", "data": {"device": "job0", "len": 0, "offset": 0, "speed": 0, "type": "commit"}}
-{"return": {}}
 {"error": {"class": "GenericError", "desc": "Node 'drv0' is busy: block device is in use by block job: commit"}}
 {"return": {}}
 {"timestamp": {"seconds":  TIMESTAMP, "microseconds":  TIMESTAMP}, "event": "JOB_STATUS_CHANGE", "data": {"status": "waiting", "id": "job0"}}
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/144.out b/tests/qemu-iotests/144.out
index 55299201e4..a9a8216bea 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/144.out
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/144.out
@@ -14,10 +14,10 @@ Formatting 'TEST_DIR/tmp.qcow2', fmt=qcow2 size=536870912 backing_file=TEST_DIR/
 
 {"timestamp": {"seconds":  TIMESTAMP, "microseconds":  TIMESTAMP}, "event": "JOB_STATUS_CHANGE", "data": {"status": "created", "id": "virtio0"}}
 {"timestamp": {"seconds":  TIMESTAMP, "microseconds":  TIMESTAMP}, "event": "JOB_STATUS_CHANGE", "data": {"status": "running", "id": "virtio0"}}
+{"return": {}}
 {"timestamp": {"seconds":  TIMESTAMP, "microseconds":  TIMESTAMP}, "event": "JOB_STATUS_CHANGE", "data": {"status": "ready", "id": "virtio0"}}
 {"timestamp": {"seconds":  TIMESTAMP, "microseconds":  TIMESTAMP}, "event": "BLOCK_JOB_READY", "data": {"device": "virtio0", "len": 0, "offset": 0, "speed": 0, "type": "commit"}}
 {"return": {}}
-{"return": {}}
 {"timestamp": {"seconds":  TIMESTAMP, "microseconds":  TIMESTAMP}, "event": "JOB_STATUS_CHANGE", "data": {"status": "waiting", "id": "virtio0"}}
 {"timestamp": {"seconds":  TIMESTAMP, "microseconds":  TIMESTAMP}, "event": "JOB_STATUS_CHANGE", "data": {"status": "pending", "id": "virtio0"}}
 {"timestamp": {"seconds":  TIMESTAMP, "microseconds":  TIMESTAMP}, "event": "BLOCK_JOB_COMPLETED", "data": {"device": "virtio0", "len": 0, "offset": 0, "speed": 0, "type": "commit"}}