diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 32ce2c63997..bf68fba70b9 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -253,6 +253,9 @@ Bug Fixes
 
 * SOLR-6573: QueryElevationComponent now works with localParams in the query (janhoy)
 
+* SOLR-6524: Collections left in recovery state after node restart because recovery sleep time
+  increases exponentially between retries. (Mark Miller, shalin)
+
 Optimizations
 ----------------------
 
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/RecoveryStrategy.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/RecoveryStrategy.java
index 6fb3b8720b0..fb63d66cace 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/RecoveryStrategy.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/RecoveryStrategy.java
@@ -529,8 +529,8 @@ public class RecoveryStrategy extends Thread implements ClosableThread {
         }
 
         try {
-          // start at 1 sec and work up to a couple min
-          double loopCount = Math.min(Math.pow(2, retries), 600); 
+          // start at 1 sec and work up to a min
+          double loopCount = Math.min(Math.pow(2, retries), 60);
           log.info("Wait {} seconds before trying to recover again ({})", loopCount, retries);
           for (int i = 0; i < loopCount; i++) {
             if (isClosed()) break; // check if someone closed us