diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 7a6a14919da..a5e5c5c5c8f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ v 8.9.0 (unreleased)
   - Allow enabling wiki page events from Webhook management UI
   - Bump rouge to 1.11.0
   - Fix issue with arrow keys not working in search autocomplete dropdown
+  - Fix an issue where note polling stopped working if a window was in the
+    background during a refresh.
   - Make EmailsOnPushWorker use Sidekiq mailers queue
   - Fix wiki page events' webhook to point to the wiki repository
   - Don't show tags for revert and cherry-pick operations
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/notes.js.coffee b/app/assets/javascripts/notes.js.coffee
index ad216910c8d..e2d3241437b 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/notes.js.coffee
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/notes.js.coffee
@@ -115,12 +115,14 @@ class @Notes
     , @pollingInterval
 
   refresh: =>
-    return if @refreshing is true
-    @refreshing = true
     if not document.hidden and document.URL.indexOf(@noteable_url) is 0
       @getContent()
 
   getContent: ->
+    return if @refreshing
+
+    @refreshing = true
+
     $.ajax
       url: @notes_url
       data: "last_fetched_at=" + @last_fetched_at