diff --git a/contrib/remote-helpers/git-remote-hg b/contrib/remote-helpers/git-remote-hg
index 6f4afd729c..f80236be63 100755
--- a/contrib/remote-helpers/git-remote-hg
+++ b/contrib/remote-helpers/git-remote-hg
@@ -230,8 +230,9 @@ def get_filechanges(repo, ctx, parent):
     added = set()
     removed = set()
 
-    cur = ctx.manifest()
+    # load earliest manifest first for caching reasons
     prev = repo[parent].manifest().copy()
+    cur = ctx.manifest()
 
     for fn in cur:
         if fn in prev: