diff --git a/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c b/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c
index 6c69eb6dd7..1e5d1691ee 100644
--- a/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c
+++ b/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c
@@ -5461,7 +5461,6 @@ validateRecoveryParameters(void)
 static void
 exitArchiveRecovery(TimeLineID endTLI, XLogRecPtr endOfLog)
 {
-	char		recoveryPath[MAXPGPATH];
 	char		xlogfname[MAXFNAMELEN];
 	XLogSegNo	endLogSegNo;
 	XLogSegNo	startLogSegNo;
@@ -5541,17 +5540,6 @@ exitArchiveRecovery(TimeLineID endTLI, XLogRecPtr endOfLog)
 	XLogFileName(xlogfname, ThisTimeLineID, startLogSegNo, wal_segment_size);
 	XLogArchiveCleanup(xlogfname);
 
-	/*
-	 * Since there might be a partial WAL segment named RECOVERYXLOG, get rid
-	 * of it.
-	 */
-	snprintf(recoveryPath, MAXPGPATH, XLOGDIR "/RECOVERYXLOG");
-	unlink(recoveryPath);		/* ignore any error */
-
-	/* Get rid of any remaining recovered timeline-history file, too */
-	snprintf(recoveryPath, MAXPGPATH, XLOGDIR "/RECOVERYHISTORY");
-	unlink(recoveryPath);		/* ignore any error */
-
 	/*
 	 * Remove the signal files out of the way, so that we don't accidentally
 	 * re-enter archive recovery mode in a subsequent crash.
@@ -7419,6 +7407,7 @@ StartupXLOG(void)
 	if (ArchiveRecoveryRequested)
 	{
 		char		reason[200];
+		char		recoveryPath[MAXPGPATH];
 
 		Assert(InArchiveRecovery);
 
@@ -7475,6 +7464,17 @@ StartupXLOG(void)
 		 */
 		writeTimeLineHistory(ThisTimeLineID, recoveryTargetTLI,
 							 EndRecPtr, reason);
+
+		/*
+		 * Since there might be a partial WAL segment named RECOVERYXLOG, get
+		 * rid of it.
+		 */
+		snprintf(recoveryPath, MAXPGPATH, XLOGDIR "/RECOVERYXLOG");
+		unlink(recoveryPath);	/* ignore any error */
+
+		/* Get rid of any remaining recovered timeline-history file, too */
+		snprintf(recoveryPath, MAXPGPATH, XLOGDIR "/RECOVERYHISTORY");
+		unlink(recoveryPath);	/* ignore any error */
 	}
 
 	/* Save the selected TimeLineID in shared memory, too */
diff --git a/src/test/recovery/t/002_archiving.pl b/src/test/recovery/t/002_archiving.pl
index e1bd3c95cc..e71cb8a25a 100644
--- a/src/test/recovery/t/002_archiving.pl
+++ b/src/test/recovery/t/002_archiving.pl
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ use strict;
 use warnings;
 use PostgresNode;
 use TestLib;
-use Test::More tests => 1;
+use Test::More tests => 3;
 use File::Copy;
 
 # Initialize master node, doing archives
@@ -49,3 +49,14 @@ $node_standby->poll_query_until('postgres', $caughtup_query)
 my $result =
   $node_standby->safe_psql('postgres', "SELECT count(*) FROM tab_int");
 is($result, qq(1000), 'check content from archives');
+
+# Promote the standby, and check that files specifically generated during
+# archive recovery are cleaned up.
+$node_standby->promote;
+my $node_standby_data = $node_standby->data_dir;
+isnt(
+	-f "$node_standby_data/pg_wal/RECOVERYHISTORY",
+	"RECOVERYHISTORY removed after promotion");
+isnt(
+	-f "$node_standby_data/pg_wal/RECOVERYXLOG",
+	"RECOVERYXLOG removed after promotion");