diff --git a/cmd/erasure-server-sets.go b/cmd/erasure-server-sets.go
index 6d510b3a6..b8da52d45 100644
--- a/cmd/erasure-server-sets.go
+++ b/cmd/erasure-server-sets.go
@@ -1008,6 +1008,12 @@ func lexicallySortedEntryZone(zoneEntryChs [][]FileInfoCh, zoneEntries [][]FileI
 				continue
 			}
 
+			// Always deduplicate prefixes
+			if lentry.Name == zoneEntries[i][j].Name && strings.HasSuffix(lentry.Name, slashSeparator) {
+				lexicallySortedEntryCount++
+				continue
+			}
+
 			// Entries are duplicated across disks,
 			// we should simply skip such entries.
 			if lentry.Name == zoneEntries[i][j].Name && lentry.ModTime.Equal(zoneEntries[i][j].ModTime) && setIndex == zoneEntryChs[i][j].SetIndex {
@@ -1102,6 +1108,12 @@ func lexicallySortedEntryZoneVersions(zoneEntryChs [][]FileInfoVersionsCh, zoneE
 				continue
 			}
 
+			// Always deduplicate prefixes
+			if lentry.Name == zoneEntries[i][j].Name && strings.HasSuffix(lentry.Name, slashSeparator) {
+				lexicallySortedEntryCount++
+				continue
+			}
+
 			// Entries are duplicated across disks,
 			// we should simply skip such entries.
 			if lentry.Name == zoneEntries[i][j].Name && lentry.LatestModTime.Equal(zoneEntries[i][j].LatestModTime) && setIndex == zoneEntryChs[i][j].SetIndex {