diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 6609b05722..452dc9bcf1 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 3.0.15
+ * enable segement creation before recovering commitlogs (CASSANDRA-13587)
  * Fix AssertionError in short read protection (CASSANDRA-13747)
  * Don't skip corrupted sstables on startup (CASSANDRA-13620)
  * Fix the merging of cells with different user type versions (CASSANDRA-13776)
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/commitlog/CommitLog.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/commitlog/CommitLog.java
index d167735fcf..40040edfac 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/commitlog/CommitLog.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/commitlog/CommitLog.java
@@ -150,6 +150,7 @@ public class CommitLog implements CommitLogMBean
 
         File[] files = new File(DatabaseDescriptor.getCommitLogLocation()).listFiles(unmanagedFilesFilter);
         int replayed = 0;
+        allocator.enableReserveSegmentCreation();
         if (files.length == 0)
         {
             logger.info("No commitlog files found; skipping replay");
@@ -165,7 +166,6 @@ public class CommitLog implements CommitLogMBean
                 allocator.recycleSegment(f);
         }
 
-        allocator.enableReserveSegmentCreation();
         return replayed;
     }