diff --git a/TODO b/TODO
index c0ddb796..6f65a300 100644
--- a/TODO
+++ b/TODO
@@ -1,15 +1,3 @@
-- getting an error in test_formats.sh
-
-	$ ./test_formats.sh 
-	testing IMG_4618.jpg v ... ok
-	testing IMG_4618.jpg tif ... ok
-	testing IMG_4618.jpg tif[compression=jpeg] ... ok
-	testing IMG_4618.jpg tif[compression=deflate] ... ok
-	testing IMG_4618.jpg tif[compression=packbits] ... ok
-	testing IMG_4618.jpg tif[compression=jpeg,tile] ... vips warning: linecache:
-	error reading tile 0x128: VipsJpeg: out of order read at line 384
-
-
 - use vips_resize() in vipsthumbnail?
 
   should the sharpening filter be selectable?
diff --git a/libvips/foreign/foreign.c b/libvips/foreign/foreign.c
index aa23d3f4..404f2db3 100644
--- a/libvips/foreign/foreign.c
+++ b/libvips/foreign/foreign.c
@@ -1337,7 +1337,9 @@ vips_foreign_save_class_init( VipsForeignSaveClass *class )
 	object_class->nickname = "filesave";
 	object_class->description = _( "file savers" );
 
-	/* I think all savers are sequential. Hopefully.
+	/* All savers are seqential by definition. Things like tiled tiff 
+	 * write and interlaced png write, which are not, add extra caches 
+	 * on their input. 
 	 */
 	operation_class->flags |= VIPS_OPERATION_SEQUENTIAL_UNBUFFERED;
 
diff --git a/libvips/foreign/vips2tiff.c b/libvips/foreign/vips2tiff.c
index ff69144f..e567ce84 100644
--- a/libvips/foreign/vips2tiff.c
+++ b/libvips/foreign/vips2tiff.c
@@ -138,6 +138,8 @@
  * 	  of bands, etc., see the tiff loader
  * 26/1/14
  * 	- add RGB as well as YCbCr write
+ * 20/11/14
+ * 	- cache input in tile write mode to keep us seqential
  */
 
 /*
@@ -266,6 +268,8 @@ typedef struct tiff_write {
 	int rgbjpeg;			/* True for RGB not YCbCr */
 
 	GMutex *write_lock;		/* Lock TIFF*() calls with this */
+
+	VipsImage *cache; 		/* Cache a chunk of input */
 } TiffWrite;
 
 /* Open TIFF for output.
@@ -1229,6 +1233,7 @@ free_tiff_write( TiffWrite *tw )
 	VIPS_FREEF( vips_free, tw->tbuf );
 	VIPS_FREEF( vips_g_mutex_free, tw->write_lock );
 	VIPS_FREEF( free_pyramid, tw->layer );
+	VIPS_UNREF( tw->cache );
 	VIPS_FREEF( vips_free, tw->icc_profile );
 }
 
@@ -1320,6 +1325,7 @@ make_tiff_write( VipsImage *im, const char *filename,
 	tw->bigtiff = bigtiff;
 	tw->rgbjpeg = rgbjpeg;
 	tw->write_lock = NULL;
+	tw->cache = NULL;
 
 	tw->resunit = get_resunit( resunit );
 	tw->xres = xres;
@@ -1379,6 +1385,20 @@ make_tiff_write( VipsImage *im, const char *filename,
 	else
 		tw->tls = VIPS_IMAGE_SIZEOF_PEL( im ) * tw->tilew;
 
+	/* If we will be writing tiles, we need to cache tileh pixels of the
+	 * input, since we say we're sequential.
+	 */
+	if( tw->tile ) { 
+		if( vips_tilecache( tw->im, &tw->cache,
+			"tile_width", tw->im->Xsize,
+			"tile_height", tw->tileh,
+			"max_tiles", 1,
+			NULL ) ) 
+			return( NULL );
+
+		tw->im = tw->cache;
+	}
+
 	return( tw );
 }