diff --git a/compiler/rustc_query_system/src/query/job.rs b/compiler/rustc_query_system/src/query/job.rs
index a8c2aa98cd083..37b305d0a8b50 100644
--- a/compiler/rustc_query_system/src/query/job.rs
+++ b/compiler/rustc_query_system/src/query/job.rs
@@ -477,8 +477,8 @@ fn remove_cycle(
 /// Detects query cycles by using depth first search over all active query jobs.
 /// If a query cycle is found it will break the cycle by finding an edge which
 /// uses a query latch and then resuming that waiter.
-/// There may be multiple cycles involved in a deadlock, so this searches
-/// all active queries for cycles before finally resuming all the waiters at once.
+/// There may be multiple cycles involved in a deadlock, but we only search
+/// one cycle at a call and resume one waiter at once. See `FIXME` below.
 pub fn break_query_cycles(query_map: QueryMap, registry: &rayon_core::Registry) {
     let mut wakelist = Vec::new();
     let mut jobs: Vec<QueryJobId> = query_map.keys().cloned().collect();
@@ -488,6 +488,19 @@ pub fn break_query_cycles(query_map: QueryMap, registry: &rayon_core::Registry)
     while jobs.len() > 0 {
         if remove_cycle(&query_map, &mut jobs, &mut wakelist) {
             found_cycle = true;
+
+            // FIXME(#137731): Resume all the waiters at once may cause deadlocks,
+            // so we resume one waiter at a call for now. It's still unclear whether
+            // it's due to possible issues in rustc-rayon or instead in the handling
+            // of query cycles.
+            // This seem to only appear when multiple query cycles errors
+            // are involved, so this reduction in parallelism, while suboptimal, is not
+            // universal and only the deadlock handler will encounter these cases.
+            // The workaround shows loss of potential gains, but there still are big
+            // improvements in the common case, and no regressions compared to the
+            // single-threaded case. More investigation is still needed, and once fixed,
+            // we can wake up all the waiters up.
+            break;
         }
     }