diff --git a/src/shared/async.c b/src/shared/async.c
index 8d65062285..c8f755cb2e 100644
--- a/src/shared/async.c
+++ b/src/shared/async.c
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 #include "process-util.h"
 #include "signal-util.h"
 
-int asynchronous_sync(pid_t *ret_pid) {
+int asynchronous_sync(PidRef *ret_pid) {
         int r;
 
         /* This forks off an invocation of fork() as a child process, in order to initiate synchronization to
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ int asynchronous_sync(pid_t *ret_pid) {
          * original process ever, and a thread would do that as the process can't exit with threads hanging in blocking
          * syscalls. */
 
-        r = safe_fork("(sd-sync)", FORK_RESET_SIGNALS|FORK_CLOSE_ALL_FDS|(ret_pid ? 0 : FORK_DETACH), ret_pid);
+        r = pidref_safe_fork("(sd-sync)", FORK_RESET_SIGNALS|FORK_CLOSE_ALL_FDS|(ret_pid ? 0 : FORK_DETACH), ret_pid);
         if (r < 0)
                 return r;
         if (r == 0) {
@@ -34,17 +34,19 @@ int asynchronous_sync(pid_t *ret_pid) {
         return 0;
 }
 
-int asynchronous_fsync(int fd, pid_t *ret_pid) {
+int asynchronous_fsync(int fd, PidRef *ret_pid) {
         int r;
 
         assert(fd >= 0);
         /* Same as asynchronous_sync() above, but calls fsync() on a specific fd */
 
-        r = safe_fork_full("(sd-fsync)",
-                           /* stdio_fds= */ NULL,
-                           /* except_fds= */ &fd,
-                           /* n_except_fds= */ 1,
-                           FORK_RESET_SIGNALS|FORK_CLOSE_ALL_FDS|(ret_pid ? 0 : FORK_DETACH), ret_pid);
+        r = pidref_safe_fork_full(
+                        "(sd-fsync)",
+                        /* stdio_fds= */ NULL,
+                        /* except_fds= */ &fd,
+                        /* n_except_fds= */ 1,
+                        FORK_RESET_SIGNALS|FORK_CLOSE_ALL_FDS|(ret_pid ? 0 : FORK_DETACH),
+                        ret_pid);
         if (r < 0)
                 return r;
         if (r == 0) {
diff --git a/src/shared/async.h b/src/shared/async.h
index d8604f8746..c49b385308 100644
--- a/src/shared/async.h
+++ b/src/shared/async.h
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 #include <sys/types.h>
 
 #include "macro.h"
+#include "pidref.h"
 #include "rm-rf.h"
 
 /* These functions implement various potentially slow operations that are executed asynchronously. They are
@@ -19,8 +20,8 @@
  * child, or never use clone()/clone3() and stick to fork() only. Because we need clone()/clone3() we opted
  * for avoiding threads. */
 
-int asynchronous_sync(pid_t *ret_pid);
-int asynchronous_fsync(int fd, pid_t *ret_pid);
+int asynchronous_sync(PidRef *ret_pid);
+int asynchronous_fsync(int fd, PidRef *ret_pid);
 
 int asynchronous_close(int fd);
 void asynchronous_close_many(const int fds[], size_t n_fds);
diff --git a/src/shutdown/shutdown.c b/src/shutdown/shutdown.c
index e26a8579c5..cb7d4eb408 100644
--- a/src/shutdown/shutdown.c
+++ b/src/shutdown/shutdown.c
@@ -226,7 +226,7 @@ int sync_with_progress(int fd) {
         unsigned long long dirty = ULLONG_MAX;
         _cleanup_free_ char *path = NULL;
         const char *what;
-        pid_t pid;
+        _cleanup_(pidref_done) PidRef pidref = PIDREF_NULL;
         int r;
 
         BLOCK_SIGNALS(SIGCHLD);
@@ -235,13 +235,13 @@ int sync_with_progress(int fd) {
          * the progress. If the timeout lapses, the assumption is that the particular sync stalled. */
 
         if (fd >= 0) {
-                r = asynchronous_fsync(fd, &pid);
+                r = asynchronous_fsync(fd, &pidref);
                 if (r < 0)
                         return log_error_errno(r, "Failed to fork fsync(): %m");
 
                 (void) fd_get_path(fd, &path);
         } else {
-                r = asynchronous_sync(&pid);
+                r = asynchronous_sync(&pidref);
                 if (r < 0)
                         return log_error_errno(r, "Failed to fork sync(): %m");
         }
@@ -253,7 +253,7 @@ int sync_with_progress(int fd) {
          * SYNC_PROGRESS_ATTEMPTS lapse without progress being made,
          * we assume that the sync is stalled */
         for (unsigned checks = 0; checks < SYNC_PROGRESS_ATTEMPTS; checks++) {
-                r = wait_for_terminate_with_timeout(pid, SYNC_TIMEOUT_USEC);
+                r = wait_for_terminate_with_timeout(pidref.pid, SYNC_TIMEOUT_USEC);
                 if (r == 0)
                         /* Sync finished without error (sync() call itself does not return an error code) */
                         return 0;
@@ -267,8 +267,8 @@ int sync_with_progress(int fd) {
 
         /* Only reached in the event of a timeout. We should issue a kill to the stray process. */
         r = log_error_errno(SYNTHETIC_ERRNO(ETIMEDOUT),
-                            "Syncing %s - timed out, issuing SIGKILL to PID "PID_FMT".", what, pid);
-        (void) kill(pid, SIGKILL);
+                            "Syncing %s - timed out, issuing SIGKILL to PID "PID_FMT".", what, pidref.pid);
+        (void) pidref_kill(&pidref, SIGKILL);
         return r;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/test/test-async.c b/src/test/test-async.c
index 443505c3eb..2b87faba7d 100644
--- a/src/test/test-async.c
+++ b/src/test/test-async.c
@@ -15,7 +15,9 @@
 #include "tmpfile-util.h"
 
 TEST(asynchronous_sync) {
-        ASSERT_OK(asynchronous_sync(NULL));
+        _cleanup_(pidref_done) PidRef pidref = PIDREF_NULL;
+        ASSERT_OK(asynchronous_sync(&pidref));
+        ASSERT_OK(pidref_wait_for_terminate(&pidref, /* ret= */ NULL));
 }
 
 static void wait_fd_closed(int fd) {