diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/ScanQueryMatcher.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/ScanQueryMatcher.java
index 706fc5b1d87..bfd399bbc63 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/ScanQueryMatcher.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/ScanQueryMatcher.java
@@ -610,6 +610,10 @@ public class ScanQueryMatcher {
     }
   }
 
+  boolean isUserScan() {
+    return this.isUserScan;
+  }
+
   //Used only for testing purposes
   static MatchCode checkColumn(ColumnTracker columnTracker, byte[] bytes, int offset,
       int length, long ttl, byte type, boolean ignoreCount) throws IOException {
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/StoreScanner.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/StoreScanner.java
index 8dd3d7d0ef3..ecae787310e 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/StoreScanner.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/StoreScanner.java
@@ -351,7 +351,7 @@ public class StoreScanner extends NonReversedNonLazyKeyValueScanner
       if (!isParallelSeek) {
         long totalScannersSoughtBytes = 0;
         for (KeyValueScanner scanner : scanners) {
-          if (totalScannersSoughtBytes >= maxRowSize) {
+          if (matcher.isUserScan() && totalScannersSoughtBytes >= maxRowSize) {
             throw new RowTooBigException("Max row size allowed: " + maxRowSize
               + ", but row is bigger than that");
           }
@@ -572,7 +572,7 @@ public class StoreScanner extends NonReversedNonLazyKeyValueScanner
           scannerContext.incrementSizeProgress(CellUtil.estimatedHeapSizeOf(cell));
           scannerContext.incrementBatchProgress(1);
 
-          if (totalBytesRead > maxRowSize) {
+          if (matcher.isUserScan() && totalBytesRead > maxRowSize) {
             throw new RowTooBigException(
                 "Max row size allowed: " + maxRowSize + ", but the row is bigger than that.");
           }