diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/blobstore/BlobReuseExistingNodeAllocation.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/blobstore/BlobReuseExistingNodeAllocation.java
index 439a3891143..aabb1de3c49 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/blobstore/BlobReuseExistingNodeAllocation.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/blobstore/BlobReuseExistingNodeAllocation.java
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ public class BlobReuseExistingNodeAllocation extends NodeAllocation {
         this.indicesService = indicesService;
         this.transportNodesListShardStoreMetaData = transportNodesListShardStoreMetaData;
 
-        this.listTimeout = componentSettings.getAsTime("list_timeout", TimeValue.timeValueSeconds(60));
+        this.listTimeout = componentSettings.getAsTime("list_timeout", TimeValue.timeValueSeconds(30));
     }
 
     @Override public boolean allocate(NodeAllocations nodeAllocations, RoutingNodes routingNodes, DiscoveryNodes nodes) {
@@ -102,6 +102,25 @@ public class BlobReuseExistingNodeAllocation extends NodeAllocation {
                 continue;
             }
 
+            // pre-check if it can be allocated to any node that currently exists, so we won't list the store for it for nothing
+            boolean canBeAllocatedToAtLeastOneNode = false;
+            for (DiscoveryNode discoNode : nodes.dataNodes().values()) {
+                RoutingNode node = routingNodes.node(discoNode.id());
+                if (node == null) {
+                    continue;
+                }
+                // if its THROTTLING, we are not going to allocate it to this node, so ignore it as well
+                if (nodeAllocations.canAllocate(shard, node, routingNodes).allocate()) {
+                    canBeAllocatedToAtLeastOneNode = true;
+                    break;
+                }
+            }
+
+            if (!canBeAllocatedToAtLeastOneNode) {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            // go and fetch the shard store data for it
             TransportNodesListShardStoreMetaData.NodesStoreFilesMetaData nodesStoreFilesMetaData = transportNodesListShardStoreMetaData.list(shard.shardId(), false, nodes.dataNodes().keySet(), listTimeout).actionGet();
 
             if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) {
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/indices/store/TransportNodesListShardStoreMetaData.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/indices/store/TransportNodesListShardStoreMetaData.java
index 5d4f19ff997..e9dd75a133f 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/indices/store/TransportNodesListShardStoreMetaData.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/indices/store/TransportNodesListShardStoreMetaData.java
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ import org.elasticsearch.action.support.nodes.*;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterName;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterService;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNode;
-import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNodes;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.collect.Lists;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.inject.Inject;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamInput;
@@ -87,19 +86,6 @@ public class TransportNodesListShardStoreMetaData extends TransportNodesOperatio
         return new NodeStoreFilesMetaData();
     }
 
-    /**
-     * We only need to ask data nodes for shard allocation information.
-     */
-    @Override protected String[] filterNodeIds(DiscoveryNodes nodes, String[] nodesIds) {
-        List<String> dataNodeIds = Lists.newArrayList();
-        for (String nodeId : nodesIds) {
-            if (nodes.get(nodeId).dataNode()) {
-                dataNodeIds.add(nodeId);
-            }
-        }
-        return dataNodeIds.toArray(new String[dataNodeIds.size()]);
-    }
-
     @Override protected NodesStoreFilesMetaData newResponse(Request request, AtomicReferenceArray responses) {
         final List<NodeStoreFilesMetaData> nodeStoreFilesMetaDatas = Lists.newArrayList();
         final List<FailedNodeException> failures = Lists.newArrayList();