diff --git a/block/bfq-iosched.c b/block/bfq-iosched.c
index 3a27d31fcda6..97337214bec4 100644
--- a/block/bfq-iosched.c
+++ b/block/bfq-iosched.c
@@ -638,7 +638,7 @@ static bool bfq_varied_queue_weights_or_active_groups(struct bfq_data *bfqd)
 		 bfqd->queue_weights_tree.rb_node->rb_right)
 #ifdef CONFIG_BFQ_GROUP_IOSCHED
 	       ) ||
-		(bfqd->num_active_groups > 0
+		(bfqd->num_groups_with_pending_reqs > 0
 #endif
 	       );
 }
@@ -802,7 +802,21 @@ void bfq_weights_tree_remove(struct bfq_data *bfqd,
 			 */
 			break;
 		}
-		bfqd->num_active_groups--;
+
+		/*
+		 * The decrement of num_groups_with_pending_reqs is
+		 * not performed immediately upon the deactivation of
+		 * entity, but it is delayed to when it also happens
+		 * that the first leaf descendant bfqq of entity gets
+		 * all its pending requests completed. The following
+		 * instructions perform this delayed decrement, if
+		 * needed. See the comments on
+		 * num_groups_with_pending_reqs for details.
+		 */
+		if (entity->in_groups_with_pending_reqs) {
+			entity->in_groups_with_pending_reqs = false;
+			bfqd->num_groups_with_pending_reqs--;
+		}
 	}
 }
 
@@ -3529,27 +3543,44 @@ static bool bfq_better_to_idle(struct bfq_queue *bfqq)
 	 * fact, if there are active groups, then, for condition (i)
 	 * to become false, it is enough that an active group contains
 	 * more active processes or sub-groups than some other active
-	 * group. We address this issue with the following bi-modal
-	 * behavior, implemented in the function
+	 * group. More precisely, for condition (i) to hold because of
+	 * such a group, it is not even necessary that the group is
+	 * (still) active: it is sufficient that, even if the group
+	 * has become inactive, some of its descendant processes still
+	 * have some request already dispatched but still waiting for
+	 * completion. In fact, requests have still to be guaranteed
+	 * their share of the throughput even after being
+	 * dispatched. In this respect, it is easy to show that, if a
+	 * group frequently becomes inactive while still having
+	 * in-flight requests, and if, when this happens, the group is
+	 * not considered in the calculation of whether the scenario
+	 * is asymmetric, then the group may fail to be guaranteed its
+	 * fair share of the throughput (basically because idling may
+	 * not be performed for the descendant processes of the group,
+	 * but it had to be).  We address this issue with the
+	 * following bi-modal behavior, implemented in the function
 	 * bfq_symmetric_scenario().
 	 *
-	 * If there are active groups, then the scenario is tagged as
+	 * If there are groups with requests waiting for completion
+	 * (as commented above, some of these groups may even be
+	 * already inactive), then the scenario is tagged as
 	 * asymmetric, conservatively, without checking any of the
 	 * conditions (i) and (ii). So the device is idled for bfqq.
 	 * This behavior matches also the fact that groups are created
-	 * exactly if controlling I/O (to preserve bandwidth and
-	 * latency guarantees) is a primary concern.
+	 * exactly if controlling I/O is a primary concern (to
+	 * preserve bandwidth and latency guarantees).
 	 *
-	 * On the opposite end, if there are no active groups, then
-	 * only condition (i) is actually controlled, i.e., provided
-	 * that condition (i) holds, idling is not performed,
-	 * regardless of whether condition (ii) holds. In other words,
-	 * only if condition (i) does not hold, then idling is
-	 * allowed, and the device tends to be prevented from queueing
-	 * many requests, possibly of several processes. Since there
-	 * are no active groups, then, to control condition (i) it is
-	 * enough to check whether all active queues have the same
-	 * weight.
+	 * On the opposite end, if there are no groups with requests
+	 * waiting for completion, then only condition (i) is actually
+	 * controlled, i.e., provided that condition (i) holds, idling
+	 * is not performed, regardless of whether condition (ii)
+	 * holds. In other words, only if condition (i) does not hold,
+	 * then idling is allowed, and the device tends to be
+	 * prevented from queueing many requests, possibly of several
+	 * processes. Since there are no groups with requests waiting
+	 * for completion, then, to control condition (i) it is enough
+	 * to check just whether all the queues with requests waiting
+	 * for completion also have the same weight.
 	 *
 	 * Not checking condition (ii) evidently exposes bfqq to the
 	 * risk of getting less throughput than its fair share.
@@ -3607,10 +3638,11 @@ static bool bfq_better_to_idle(struct bfq_queue *bfqq)
 	 * bfqq is weight-raised is checked explicitly here. More
 	 * precisely, the compound condition below takes into account
 	 * also the fact that, even if bfqq is being weight-raised,
-	 * the scenario is still symmetric if all active queues happen
-	 * to be weight-raised. Actually, we should be even more
-	 * precise here, and differentiate between interactive weight
-	 * raising and soft real-time weight raising.
+	 * the scenario is still symmetric if all queues with requests
+	 * waiting for completion happen to be
+	 * weight-raised. Actually, we should be even more precise
+	 * here, and differentiate between interactive weight raising
+	 * and soft real-time weight raising.
 	 *
 	 * As a side note, it is worth considering that the above
 	 * device-idling countermeasures may however fail in the
@@ -5417,7 +5449,7 @@ static int bfq_init_queue(struct request_queue *q, struct elevator_type *e)
 	bfqd->idle_slice_timer.function = bfq_idle_slice_timer;
 
 	bfqd->queue_weights_tree = RB_ROOT;
-	bfqd->num_active_groups = 0;
+	bfqd->num_groups_with_pending_reqs = 0;
 
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&bfqd->active_list);
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&bfqd->idle_list);
diff --git a/block/bfq-iosched.h b/block/bfq-iosched.h
index 77651d817ecd..0b02bf302de0 100644
--- a/block/bfq-iosched.h
+++ b/block/bfq-iosched.h
@@ -196,6 +196,9 @@ struct bfq_entity {
 
 	/* flag, set to request a weight, ioprio or ioprio_class change  */
 	int prio_changed;
+
+	/* flag, set if the entity is counted in groups_with_pending_reqs */
+	bool in_groups_with_pending_reqs;
 };
 
 struct bfq_group;
@@ -448,10 +451,54 @@ struct bfq_data {
 	 * bfq_weights_tree_[add|remove] for further details).
 	 */
 	struct rb_root queue_weights_tree;
+
 	/*
-	 * number of groups with requests still waiting for completion
+	 * Number of groups with at least one descendant process that
+	 * has at least one request waiting for completion. Note that
+	 * this accounts for also requests already dispatched, but not
+	 * yet completed. Therefore this number of groups may differ
+	 * (be larger) than the number of active groups, as a group is
+	 * considered active only if its corresponding entity has
+	 * descendant queues with at least one request queued. This
+	 * number is used to decide whether a scenario is symmetric.
+	 * For a detailed explanation see comments on the computation
+	 * of the variable asymmetric_scenario in the function
+	 * bfq_better_to_idle().
+	 *
+	 * However, it is hard to compute this number exactly, for
+	 * groups with multiple descendant processes. Consider a group
+	 * that is inactive, i.e., that has no descendant process with
+	 * pending I/O inside BFQ queues. Then suppose that
+	 * num_groups_with_pending_reqs is still accounting for this
+	 * group, because the group has descendant processes with some
+	 * I/O request still in flight. num_groups_with_pending_reqs
+	 * should be decremented when the in-flight request of the
+	 * last descendant process is finally completed (assuming that
+	 * nothing else has changed for the group in the meantime, in
+	 * terms of composition of the group and active/inactive state of child
+	 * groups and processes). To accomplish this, an additional
+	 * pending-request counter must be added to entities, and must
+	 * be updated correctly. To avoid this additional field and operations,
+	 * we resort to the following tradeoff between simplicity and
+	 * accuracy: for an inactive group that is still counted in
+	 * num_groups_with_pending_reqs, we decrement
+	 * num_groups_with_pending_reqs when the first descendant
+	 * process of the group remains with no request waiting for
+	 * completion.
+	 *
+	 * Even this simpler decrement strategy requires a little
+	 * carefulness: to avoid multiple decrements, we flag a group,
+	 * more precisely an entity representing a group, as still
+	 * counted in num_groups_with_pending_reqs when it becomes
+	 * inactive. Then, when the first descendant queue of the
+	 * entity remains with no request waiting for completion,
+	 * num_groups_with_pending_reqs is decremented, and this flag
+	 * is reset. After this flag is reset for the entity,
+	 * num_groups_with_pending_reqs won't be decremented any
+	 * longer in case a new descendant queue of the entity remains
+	 * with no request waiting for completion.
 	 */
-	unsigned int num_active_groups;
+	unsigned int num_groups_with_pending_reqs;
 
 	/*
 	 * Number of bfq_queues containing requests (including the
diff --git a/block/bfq-wf2q.c b/block/bfq-wf2q.c
index 4b0d5fb69160..63e0f12be7c9 100644
--- a/block/bfq-wf2q.c
+++ b/block/bfq-wf2q.c
@@ -1012,7 +1012,10 @@ static void __bfq_activate_entity(struct bfq_entity *entity,
 			container_of(entity, struct bfq_group, entity);
 		struct bfq_data *bfqd = bfqg->bfqd;
 
-		bfqd->num_active_groups++;
+		if (!entity->in_groups_with_pending_reqs) {
+			entity->in_groups_with_pending_reqs = true;
+			bfqd->num_groups_with_pending_reqs++;
+		}
 	}
 #endif
 
