diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/reduce-lock-contention.md b/changelog/unreleased/reduce-lock-contention.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6e2fe32472
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/reduce-lock-contention.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+Enhancement: Reduce lock contention issues
+
+We reduced lock contention during high load by optimistically non-locking when listing the extended attributes of a file.
+Only in case of issues the list is read again while holding a lock.
+
+https://github.com/cs3org/reva/pull/3395
diff --git a/pkg/storage/utils/decomposedfs/node/locks.go b/pkg/storage/utils/decomposedfs/node/locks.go
index 15957cb67d..16dd222681 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/utils/decomposedfs/node/locks.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/utils/decomposedfs/node/locks.go
@@ -255,20 +255,20 @@ func (n *Node) Unlock(ctx context.Context, lock *provider.Lock) error {
 
 // CheckLock compares the context lock with the node lock
 func (n *Node) CheckLock(ctx context.Context) error {
-	lockID, _ := ctxpkg.ContextGetLockID(ctx)
-	lock, _ := n.ReadLock(ctx, false)
-	if lock != nil {
-		switch lockID {
+	contextLock, _ := ctxpkg.ContextGetLockID(ctx)
+	diskLock, _ := n.ReadLock(ctx, false)
+	if diskLock != nil {
+		switch contextLock {
 		case "":
-			return errtypes.Locked(lock.LockId) // no lockid in request
-		case lock.LockId:
+			return errtypes.Locked(diskLock.LockId) // no lockid in request
+		case diskLock.LockId:
 			return nil // ok
 		default:
 			return errtypes.Aborted("mismatching lock")
 		}
 	}
-	if lockID != "" {
-		return errtypes.Aborted("not locked")
+	if contextLock != "" {
+		return errtypes.Aborted("not locked") // no lock on disk. why is there a lockid in the context
 	}
 	return nil // ok
 }
diff --git a/pkg/storage/utils/decomposedfs/xattrs/xattrs.go b/pkg/storage/utils/decomposedfs/xattrs/xattrs.go
index 6ae8a8b4cf..732e8e880c 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/utils/decomposedfs/xattrs/xattrs.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/utils/decomposedfs/xattrs/xattrs.go
@@ -189,8 +189,6 @@ func CopyMetadata(src, target string, filter func(attributeName string) bool) (e
 }
 
 // Set an extended attribute key to the given value
-// No file locking is involved here as writing a single xattr is
-// considered to be atomic.
 func Set(filePath string, key string, val string) (err error) {
 	fileLock, err := filelocks.AcquireWriteLock(filePath)
 
@@ -210,8 +208,6 @@ func Set(filePath string, key string, val string) (err error) {
 }
 
 // Remove an extended attribute key
-// No file locking is involved here as writing a single xattr is
-// considered to be atomic.
 func Remove(filePath string, key string) (err error) {
 	fileLock, err := filelocks.AcquireWriteLock(filePath)
 
@@ -235,9 +231,6 @@ func Remove(filePath string, key string) (err error) {
 // If the file lock can not be acquired the function returns a
 // lock error.
 func SetMultiple(filePath string, attribs map[string]string) (err error) {
-
-	// h, err := lockedfile.OpenFile(filePath, os.O_WRONLY, 0) // 0? Open File only workn for files ... but we want to lock dirs ... or symlinks
-	// or we append .lock to the file and use https://github.com/gofrs/flock
 	var fileLock *flock.Flock
 	fileLock, err = filelocks.AcquireWriteLock(filePath)
 
@@ -299,7 +292,12 @@ func GetInt64(filePath, key string) (int64, error) {
 // List retrieves a list of names of extended attributes associated with the
 // given path in the file system.
 func List(filePath string) (attribs []string, err error) {
-	// now try to get a shared lock on the source
+	attrs, err := xattr.List(filePath)
+	if err == nil {
+		return attrs, nil
+	}
+
+	// listing the attributes failed. lock the file and try again
 	readLock, err := filelocks.AcquireReadLock(filePath)
 
 	if err != nil {