diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 0fe81b11b..7f41c1b7e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ BUG FIXES:
   - core: Downloads with user/password use the curl `-u` flag. [GH-3183]
   - core: `vagrant help` no longer loads the Vagrantfile. [GH-3180]
   - guests/darwin: Fix an exception when configuring networks. [GH-3143]
+  - guests/linux: Only chown folders/files in rsync if they don't
+    have the proper owner. [GH-3186]
   - hosts/linux: Unusual sed delimiter to avoid conflicts. [GH-3167]
   - providers/virtualbox: Make more internal interactions with VBoxManage
     retryable to avoid spurious VirtualBox errors. [GH-2831]
diff --git a/plugins/guests/linux/cap/rsync.rb b/plugins/guests/linux/cap/rsync.rb
index 46e6d48a4..a1d3c7ad7 100644
--- a/plugins/guests/linux/cap/rsync.rb
+++ b/plugins/guests/linux/cap/rsync.rb
@@ -6,18 +6,20 @@ module VagrantPlugins
           machine.communicate.test("which rsync")
         end
 
-        def self.rsync_pre(machine, folder_opts)
+        def self.rsync_pre(machine, opts)
           username = machine.ssh_info[:username]
 
           machine.communicate.tap do |comm|
-            comm.sudo("mkdir -p '#{folder_opts[:guestpath]}'")
-            comm.sudo("chown -R #{username} '#{folder_opts[:guestpath]}'")
+            comm.sudo("mkdir -p '#{opts[:guestpath]}'")
+            comm.sudo("find '#{opts[:guestpath]}' ! -user vagrant -print0 | " +
+              "xargs -0 -r chown -v #{username}:")
           end
         end
 
         def self.rsync_post(machine, opts)
           machine.communicate.tap do |comm|
-            comm.sudo("chown -R #{opts[:owner]}:#{opts[:group]} '#{opts[:guestpath]}'")
+            comm.sudo("find '#{opts[:guestpath]}' ! -user vagrant -print0 | " +
+              "xargs -0 -r chown -v #{opts[:owner]}:#{opts[:group]}")
           end
         end
       end