diff --git a/django/contrib/admin/__init__.py b/django/contrib/admin/__init__.py
index abc5f09b56..92f23a90e6 100644
--- a/django/contrib/admin/__init__.py
+++ b/django/contrib/admin/__init__.py
@@ -4,9 +4,6 @@ from django.contrib.admin.options import StackedInline, TabularInline
 from django.contrib.admin.sites import AdminSite, site
 from django.utils.importlib import import_module
 
-# A flag to tell us if autodiscover is running.  autodiscover will set this to
-# True while running, and False when it finishes.
-LOADING = False
 
 def autodiscover():
     """
@@ -14,16 +11,8 @@ def autodiscover():
     not present. This forces an import on them to register any admin bits they
     may want.
     """
-    # Bail out if autodiscover didn't finish loading from a previous call so
-    # that we avoid running autodiscover again when the URLconf is loaded by
-    # the exception handler to resolve the handler500 view.  This prevents an
-    # admin.py module with errors from re-registering models and raising a
-    # spurious AlreadyRegistered exception (see #8245).
-    global LOADING
-    if LOADING:
-        return
-    LOADING = True
 
+    import copy
     import imp
     from django.conf import settings
 
@@ -54,6 +43,13 @@ def autodiscover():
 
         # Step 3: import the app's admin file. If this has errors we want them
         # to bubble up.
-        import_module("%s.admin" % app)
-    # autodiscover was successful, reset loading flag.
-    LOADING = False
+        try:
+            before_import_registry = copy.copy(site._registry)
+            import_module('%s.admin' % app)
+        except:
+            # Reset the model registry to the state before the last import as
+            # this import will have to reoccur on the next request and this
+            # could raise NotRegistered and AlreadyRegistered exceptions
+            # (see #8245).
+            site._registry = before_import_registry
+            raise
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/bug8245/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/bug8245/tests.py
index c1cc3b595c..b7c7bcdf7c 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/bug8245/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/bug8245/tests.py
@@ -18,6 +18,13 @@ class Bug8245Test(TestCase):
         else:
             self.fail(
                 'autodiscover should have raised a "Bad admin module" error.')
-        # Calling autodiscover again should bail out early and not raise an
-        # AlreadyRegistered error.
-        admin.autodiscover()
+
+        # Calling autodiscover again should raise the very same error it did
+        # the first time, not an AlreadyRegistered error.
+        try:
+            admin.autodiscover()
+        except Exception, e:
+            self.failUnlessEqual(str(e), "Bad admin module")
+        else:
+            self.fail( 
+                'autodiscover should have raised a "Bad admin module" error.')