diff --git a/src/knot/server/xfr-handler.c b/src/knot/server/xfr-handler.c
index 439db02195826e6473ea19abd371317004c6dde5..a76a7f49a0c982b8abbe69d4805e86b4cb392d7b 100644
--- a/src/knot/server/xfr-handler.c
+++ b/src/knot/server/xfr-handler.c
@@ -172,6 +172,7 @@ static int xfr_process_udp_resp(xfrworker_t *w, int fd, knot_ns_xfr_t *data)
 	/* Check if zone is valid. */
 	rcu_read_lock();
 	if (knot_zone_flags(data->zone) & KNOT_ZONE_DISCARDED) {
+		rcu_read_unlock();
 		return KNOTD_ECONNREFUSED;
 	}
 	rcu_read_unlock();
diff --git a/src/knot/server/zones.c b/src/knot/server/zones.c
index 8f607bf6765601dfdd6b9cf52532e7879164916f..705d9346467b9e0d1d417f522c1b919b69a80382 100644
--- a/src/knot/server/zones.c
+++ b/src/knot/server/zones.c
@@ -342,7 +342,7 @@ static int zones_expire_ev(event_t *e)
 		pthread_mutex_unlock(&zd->xfr_in.lock);
 		log_server_warning("Non-existent zone expired. Ignoring.\n");
 		rcu_read_unlock();
-		return 0;
+		return KNOTD_EOK;
 	}
 	
 	/* Publish expired zone. */
@@ -379,7 +379,7 @@ static int zones_expire_ev(event_t *e)
 	/* Release holding reference. */
 	knot_zone_release(zone);
 	
-	return 0;
+	return KNOTD_EOK;
 }
 
 /*!
@@ -1162,7 +1162,7 @@ static int zones_load_changesets(const knot_zone_t *zone,
 		dbg_zones_detail("Bad arguments: zd->ixfr_db=%p\n", zone->data);
 		return KNOTD_EINVAL;
 	}
-	
+
 	rcu_read_lock();
 	dbg_xfr("xfr: loading changesets for zone '%s' from serial %u to %u\n",
 	        zd->conf->name, from, to);
@@ -2097,7 +2097,6 @@ int zones_zonefile_sync(knot_zone_t *zone, journal_t *journal)
 	if (zd->zonefile_serial != serial_to) {
 
 		/* Save zone to zonefile. */
-		rcu_read_lock();
 		dbg_zones("zones: syncing '%s' differences to '%s' "
 		          "(SOA serial %u)\n",
 		          zd->conf->name, zd->conf->file, serial_to);
@@ -2109,7 +2108,6 @@ int zones_zonefile_sync(knot_zone_t *zone, journal_t *journal)
 			rcu_read_unlock();
 			return ret;
 		}
-		rcu_read_unlock();
 
 		/* Update journal entries. */
 		dbg_zones_verb("zones: unmarking all dirty nodes "