diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 70336ce4..37ba8378 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 12/2/18 started 8.6.3
 - use pkg-config to find libjpeg, if we can
+- better clean of output image in vips_image_write() fixes a crash 
+  writing twice to memory
 
 5/1/18 started 8.6.2
 - vips_sink_screen() keeps a ref to the input image ... stops a rare race
diff --git a/libvips/iofuncs/image.c b/libvips/iofuncs/image.c
index 827ca99a..84f74004 100644
--- a/libvips/iofuncs/image.c
+++ b/libvips/iofuncs/image.c
@@ -2539,7 +2539,7 @@ vips_image_write( VipsImage *image, VipsImage *out )
 		vips_object_local( out, image );
 	}
 	else {
-		vips__reorder_clear( image );
+		vips__reorder_clear( out );
 		vips__link_break_all( out );
 	}