diff --git a/src/init.cpp b/src/init.cpp
--- a/src/init.cpp
+++ b/src/init.cpp
@@ -130,7 +130,6 @@
 //
 
 std::atomic<bool> fRequestShutdown(false);
-std::atomic<bool> fDumpMempoolLater(false);
 
 void StartShutdown() {
     fRequestShutdown = true;
@@ -226,7 +225,7 @@
     threadGroup.interrupt_all();
     threadGroup.join_all();
 
-    if (fDumpMempoolLater &&
+    if (g_is_mempool_loaded &&
         gArgs.GetArg("-persistmempool", DEFAULT_PERSIST_MEMPOOL)) {
         DumpMempool();
     }
@@ -1099,8 +1098,8 @@
     } // End scope of CImportingNow
     if (gArgs.GetArg("-persistmempool", DEFAULT_PERSIST_MEMPOOL)) {
         LoadMempool(config);
-        fDumpMempoolLater = !fRequestShutdown;
     }
+    g_is_mempool_loaded = !fRequestShutdown;
 }
 
 /** Sanity checks
diff --git a/src/rpc/blockchain.cpp b/src/rpc/blockchain.cpp
--- a/src/rpc/blockchain.cpp
+++ b/src/rpc/blockchain.cpp
@@ -1832,12 +1832,17 @@
 UniValue savemempool(const Config &config, const JSONRPCRequest &request) {
     if (request.fHelp || request.params.size() != 0) {
         throw std::runtime_error("savemempool\n"
-                                 "\nDumps the mempool to disk.\n"
+                                 "\nDumps the mempool to disk. It will fail "
+                                 "until the previous dump is fully loaded.\n"
                                  "\nExamples:\n" +
                                  HelpExampleCli("savemempool", "") +
                                  HelpExampleRpc("savemempool", ""));
     }
 
+    if (!g_is_mempool_loaded) {
+        throw JSONRPCError(RPC_MISC_ERROR, "The mempool was not loaded yet");
+    }
+
     if (!DumpMempool()) {
         throw JSONRPCError(RPC_MISC_ERROR, "Unable to dump mempool to disk");
     }
diff --git a/src/validation.h b/src/validation.h
--- a/src/validation.h
+++ b/src/validation.h
@@ -210,6 +210,7 @@
 extern CScript COINBASE_FLAGS;
 extern CCriticalSection cs_main;
 extern CTxMemPool g_mempool;
+extern std::atomic_bool g_is_mempool_loaded;
 extern uint64_t nLastBlockTx;
 extern uint64_t nLastBlockSize;
 extern const std::string strMessageMagic;
diff --git a/src/validation.cpp b/src/validation.cpp
--- a/src/validation.cpp
+++ b/src/validation.cpp
@@ -197,6 +197,7 @@
 Amount maxTxFee = DEFAULT_TRANSACTION_MAXFEE;
 
 CTxMemPool g_mempool;
+std::atomic_bool g_is_mempool_loaded{false};
 
 /** Constant stuff for coinbase transactions we create: */
 CScript COINBASE_FLAGS;