diff --git a/services/surfaceflinger/SurfaceFlinger.cpp b/services/surfaceflinger/SurfaceFlinger.cpp
index ef0d52146..e4d3c5f38 100644
--- a/services/surfaceflinger/SurfaceFlinger.cpp
+++ b/services/surfaceflinger/SurfaceFlinger.cpp
@@ -1037,6 +1037,12 @@ void SurfaceFlinger::handleTransaction(uint32_t transactionFlags)
 {
     ATRACE_CALL();
 
+    // here we keep a copy of the drawing state (that is the state that's
+    // going to be overwritten by handleTransactionLocked()) outside of
+    // mStateLock so that the side-effects of the State assignment
+    // don't happen with mStateLock held (which can cause deadlocks).
+    State drawingState(mDrawingState);
+
     Mutex::Autolock _l(mStateLock);
     const nsecs_t now = systemTime();
     mDebugInTransaction = now;