diff --git a/cmd/cmd.go b/cmd/cmd.go
index 23ee116f2..b50b7ecbe 100644
--- a/cmd/cmd.go
+++ b/cmd/cmd.go
@@ -224,10 +224,22 @@ func NewFsDst(args []string) fs.Fs {
 	return fdst
 }
 
+// ShowStats returns true if the user added a `--stats` flag to the command line.
+//
+// This is called by Run to override the default value of the
+// showStats passed in.
+func ShowStats() bool {
+	statsIntervalFlag := pflag.Lookup("stats")
+	return statsIntervalFlag != nil && statsIntervalFlag.Changed
+}
+
 // Run the function with stats and retries if required
 func Run(Retry bool, showStats bool, cmd *cobra.Command, f func() error) {
 	var err error
 	var stopStats chan struct{}
+	if !showStats && ShowStats() {
+		showStats = true
+	}
 	if showStats {
 		stopStats = StartStats()
 	}
diff --git a/cmd/mount/mount.go b/cmd/mount/mount.go
index bd118ded1..1fb0337e2 100644
--- a/cmd/mount/mount.go
+++ b/cmd/mount/mount.go
@@ -147,9 +147,11 @@ func Mount(f fs.Fs, mountpoint string) error {
 	dirPerms = 0777 &^ os.FileMode(umask)
 	filePerms = 0666 &^ os.FileMode(umask)
 
-	// Show stats
-	stopStats := cmd.StartStats()
-	defer close(stopStats)
+	// Show stats if the user has specifically requested them
+	if cmd.ShowStats() {
+		stopStats := cmd.StartStats()
+		defer close(stopStats)
+	}
 
 	// Mount it
 	errChan, err := mount(f, mountpoint)
diff --git a/docs/content/docs.md b/docs/content/docs.md
index 58499a376..4064c633b 100644
--- a/docs/content/docs.md
+++ b/docs/content/docs.md
@@ -390,12 +390,18 @@ modification times in the same way as rclone.
 
 ### --stats=TIME ###
 
-Rclone will print stats at regular intervals to show its progress.
+Commands which transfer data (`sync`, `copy`, `copyto`, `move`,
+`moveto`) will print data transfer stats at regular intervals to show
+their progress.
 
 This sets the interval.
 
 The default is `1m`. Use 0 to disable.
 
+If you set the stats interval then all command can show stats.  This
+can be useful when running other commands, `check` or `mount` for
+example.
+
 ### --stats-unit=bits|bytes ###
 
 By default data transfer rates will be printed in bytes/second.