diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES_HDFS-2832.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES_HDFS-2832.txt
index d878b66b303..b30e984db52 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES_HDFS-2832.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES_HDFS-2832.txt
@@ -51,3 +51,6 @@ IMPROVEMENTS:
     HDFS-5417. Fix storage IDs in PBHelper and UpgradeUtilities.  (szetszwo)
 
     HDFS-5214. Fix NPEs in BlockManager and DirectoryScanner. (Arpit Agarwal)
+
+    HDFS-5435. File append fails to initialize storageIDs. (Junping Du via
+    Arpit Agarwal)
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSOutputStream.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSOutputStream.java
index f9738e00e6a..9e91abad6e7 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSOutputStream.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSOutputStream.java
@@ -311,7 +311,6 @@ public class DFSOutputStream extends FSOutputSummer
     private DataInputStream blockReplyStream;
     private ResponseProcessor response = null;
     private volatile DatanodeInfo[] nodes = null; // list of targets for current block
-    //TODO: update storage IDs
     private volatile String[] storageIDs = null;
     private LoadingCache<DatanodeInfo, DatanodeInfo> excludedNodes =
         CacheBuilder.newBuilder()
@@ -404,6 +403,7 @@ public class DFSOutputStream extends FSOutputSummer
 
       // setup pipeline to append to the last block XXX retries??
       nodes = lastBlock.getLocations();
+      storageIDs = lastBlock.getStorageIDs();
       errorIndex = -1;   // no errors yet.
       if (nodes.length < 1) {
         throw new IOException("Unable to retrieve blocks locations " +
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/protocolPB/ClientNamenodeProtocolTranslatorPB.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/protocolPB/ClientNamenodeProtocolTranslatorPB.java
index 30ea3e562e7..a58485be09f 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/protocolPB/ClientNamenodeProtocolTranslatorPB.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/protocolPB/ClientNamenodeProtocolTranslatorPB.java
@@ -788,7 +788,7 @@ public class ClientNamenodeProtocolTranslatorPB implements
         .setOldBlock(PBHelper.convert(oldBlock))
         .setNewBlock(PBHelper.convert(newBlock))
         .addAllNewNodes(Arrays.asList(PBHelper.convert(newNodes)))
-        .addAllStorageIDs(Arrays.asList(storageIDs))
+        .addAllStorageIDs(storageIDs == null ? null : Arrays.asList(storageIDs))
         .build();
     try {
       rpcProxy.updatePipeline(null, req);