diff --git a/src/replication.c b/src/replication.c
index a7c1c0d6..a89552a8 100644
--- a/src/replication.c
+++ b/src/replication.c
@@ -1119,6 +1119,49 @@ static int useDisklessLoad() {
            (server.repl_diskless_load == REPL_DISKLESS_LOAD_WHEN_DB_EMPTY && dbTotalServerKeyCount()==0);
 }
 
+/* Helper function for readSyncBulkPayload() to make backups of the current
+ * DBs before socket-loading the new ones. The backups may be restored later
+ * or freed by disklessLoadRestoreBackups(). */
+redisDb *disklessLoadMakeBackups(void) {
+    redisDb *backups = zmalloc(sizeof(redisDb)*server.dbnum);
+    for (int i=0; i<server.dbnum; i++) {
+        backups[i] = server.db[i];
+        server.db[i].dict = dictCreate(&dbDictType,NULL);
+        server.db[i].expires = dictCreate(&keyptrDictType,NULL);
+    }
+    return backups;
+}
+
+/* Helper function for readSyncBulkPayload(): when replica-side diskless
+ * database loading is used, Redis makes a backup of the existing databases
+ * before loading the new ones from the socket.
+ *
+ * If the socket loading went wrong, we want to restore the old backups
+ * into the server databases. This function does just that in the case
+ * the 'count' argument (the number of DBs to replace) is non-zero.
+ *
+ * When instead the loading succeeded we want just to free our old backups,
+ * in that case the funciton will do just that when 'count' is 0. */
+void disklessLoadRestoreBackups(redisDb *backup, int count, int empty_db_flags)
+{
+    if (count) {
+        /* Restore. */
+        emptyDbGeneric(server.db,-1,empty_db_flags,replicationEmptyDbCallback);
+        for (int i=0; i<count; i++) {
+            dictRelease(server.db[i].dict);
+            dictRelease(server.db[i].expires);
+            server.db[i] = backup[i];
+        }
+    } else {
+        /* Delete. */
+        emptyDbGeneric(backup,-1,empty_db_flags,replicationEmptyDbCallback);
+        for (int i=0; i<count; i++) {
+            dictRelease(backup[i].dict);
+            dictRelease(backup[i].expires);
+        }
+    }
+    zfree(backup);
+}
 
 /* Asynchronously read the SYNC payload we receive from a master */
 #define REPL_MAX_WRITTEN_BEFORE_FSYNC (1024*1024*8) /* 8 MB */
@@ -1129,7 +1172,6 @@ void readSyncBulkPayload(aeEventLoop *el, int fd, void *privdata, int mask) {
     redisDb *diskless_load_backup = NULL;
     int empty_db_flags = server.repl_slave_lazy_flush ? EMPTYDB_ASYNC :
                                                         EMPTYDB_NO_FLAGS;
-    int i;
     off_t left;
     UNUSED(el);
     UNUSED(privdata);
@@ -1308,12 +1350,7 @@ void readSyncBulkPayload(aeEventLoop *el, int fd, void *privdata, int mask) {
     if (use_diskless_load &&
         server.repl_diskless_load == REPL_DISKLESS_LOAD_SWAPDB)
     {
-        diskless_load_backup = zmalloc(sizeof(redisDb)*server.dbnum);
-        for (i=0; i<server.dbnum; i++) {
-            diskless_load_backup[i] = server.db[i];
-            server.db[i].dict = dictCreate(&dbDictType,NULL);
-            server.db[i].expires = dictCreate(&keyptrDictType,NULL);
-        }
+        diskless_load_backup = disklessLoadMakeBackups();
     } else {
         emptyDb(-1,empty_db_flags,replicationEmptyDbCallback);
     }
@@ -1345,14 +1382,8 @@ void readSyncBulkPayload(aeEventLoop *el, int fd, void *privdata, int mask) {
             rioFreeFd(&rdb, NULL);
             if (server.repl_diskless_load == REPL_DISKLESS_LOAD_SWAPDB) {
                 /* Restore the backed up databases. */
-                emptyDbGeneric(server.db,-1,empty_db_flags,
-                               replicationEmptyDbCallback);
-                for (i=0; i<server.dbnum; i++) {
-                    dictRelease(server.db[i].dict);
-                    dictRelease(server.db[i].expires);
-                    server.db[i] = diskless_load_backup[i];
-                }
-                zfree(diskless_load_backup);
+                disklessLoadRestoreBackups(diskless_load_backup,server.dbnum,
+                                           empty_db_flags);
             } else {
                 /* Remove the half-loaded data in case we started with
                  * an empty replica. */
@@ -1371,13 +1402,7 @@ void readSyncBulkPayload(aeEventLoop *el, int fd, void *privdata, int mask) {
             /* Delete the backup databases we created before starting to load
              * the new RDB. Now the RDB was loaded with success so the old
              * data is useless. */
-            emptyDbGeneric(diskless_load_backup,-1,empty_db_flags,
-                           replicationEmptyDbCallback);
-            for (i=0; i<server.dbnum; i++) {
-                dictRelease(diskless_load_backup[i].dict);
-                dictRelease(diskless_load_backup[i].expires);
-            }
-            zfree(diskless_load_backup);
+            disklessLoadRestoreBackups(diskless_load_backup,0,empty_db_flags);
         }
 
         /* Verify the end mark is correct. */