diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 3ecedec52c4..906efe1bcec 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -318,6 +318,7 @@ Release 0.92.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-4513  NOTICES.txt refers to Facebook for Thrift
    HBASE-3130  [replication] ReplicationSource can't recover from session
                expired on remote clusters (Chris Trezzo via JD)
+   HBASE-4212  TestMasterFailover fails occasionally (Gao Jinchao)
 
   TESTS
    HBASE-4450  test for number of blocks read: to serve as baseline for expected
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
index 270f3f362d4..f80d232f90e 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
@@ -559,6 +559,8 @@ implements HMasterInterface, HMasterRegionInterface, MasterServices, Server {
     if (!catalogTracker.verifyRootRegionLocation(timeout)) {
       this.assignmentManager.assignRoot();
       this.catalogTracker.waitForRoot();
+      //This guarantees that the transition has completed
+      this.assignmentManager.waitForAssignment(HRegionInfo.ROOT_REGIONINFO);
       assigned++;
     } else {
       // Region already assigned.  We didnt' assign it.  Add to in-memory state.