diff --git a/src/meshes/mesh_io.jl b/src/meshes/mesh_io.jl
index 92e38ce1bf3..337e33e6969 100644
--- a/src/meshes/mesh_io.jl
+++ b/src/meshes/mesh_io.jl
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ function save_mesh_file(mesh::TreeMesh, output_directory, timestep,
         attributes(file)["mesh_type"] = get_name(mesh)
         attributes(file)["ndims"] = ndims(mesh)
         attributes(file)["n_cells"] = n_cells
+        attributes(file)["capacity"] = mesh.tree.capacity
         attributes(file)["n_leaf_cells"] = count_leaf_cells(mesh.tree)
         attributes(file)["minimum_level"] = minimum_level(mesh.tree)
         attributes(file)["maximum_level"] = maximum_level(mesh.tree)
@@ -249,10 +250,10 @@ function load_mesh_serial(mesh_file::AbstractString; n_cells_max, RealT)
     end
 
     if mesh_type == "TreeMesh"
-        n_cells = h5open(mesh_file, "r") do file
-            return read(attributes(file)["n_cells"])
+        capacity = h5open(mesh_file, "r") do file
+            return read(attributes(file)["capacity"])
         end
-        mesh = TreeMesh(SerialTree{ndims}, max(n_cells, n_cells_max))
+        mesh = TreeMesh(SerialTree{ndims}, max(n_cells_max, capacity))
         load_mesh!(mesh, mesh_file)
     elseif mesh_type == "StructuredMesh"
         size_, mapping_as_string = h5open(mesh_file, "r") do file