diff --git a/mlx/backend/common/primitives.cpp b/mlx/backend/common/primitives.cpp
index 0bdc09ce9..ef00721aa 100644
--- a/mlx/backend/common/primitives.cpp
+++ b/mlx/backend/common/primitives.cpp
@@ -527,8 +527,8 @@ void RandomBits::eval(const std::vector<array>& inputs, array& out) {
 std::pair<bool, std::vector<size_t>> Reshape::prepare_reshape(
     const array& in,
     const array& out) {
-  // Special case for empty arrays
-  if (in.size() == 0) {
+  // Special case for empty arrays or row contiguous arrays
+  if (in.size() == 0 || in.flags().row_contiguous) {
     return {false, out.strides()};
   }
 
@@ -570,18 +570,13 @@ void Reshape::shared_buffer_reshape(
     const std::vector<size_t>& out_strides,
     array& out) {
   auto flags = in.flags();
-  if (flags.contiguous && in.data_size() == in.size()) {
-    size_t f_stride = 1;
-    size_t b_stride = 1;
-    flags.col_contiguous = true;
-    flags.row_contiguous = true;
-    for (int i = 0, ri = out.ndim() - 1; i < out.ndim(); ++i, --ri) {
-      flags.col_contiguous &= (out_strides[i] == f_stride || out.shape(i) == 1);
-      f_stride *= out.shape(i);
-      flags.row_contiguous &=
-          (out_strides[ri] == b_stride || out.shape(ri) == 1);
-      b_stride *= out.shape(ri);
-    }
+  if (flags.row_contiguous) {
+    // For row contiguous reshapes:
+    // - Shallow copy the buffer
+    // - If reshaping into a vector (all singleton dimensions except one) it
+    //    becomes col contiguous again.
+    auto max_dim = std::max_element(out.shape().begin(), out.shape().end());
+    flags.col_contiguous = out.size() <= 1 || out.size() == *max_dim;
   }
   out.copy_shared_buffer(in, out_strides, flags, in.data_size());
 }