diff --git a/src/core/symbolic.cc b/src/core/symbolic.cc
index 51cc1fa9e..0c621b55e 100644
--- a/src/core/symbolic.cc
+++ b/src/core/symbolic.cc
@@ -436,7 +436,6 @@ Symbol Symbol::GetInternals() const {
 }
 
 Symbol Symbol::GetChildren() const {
-  static auto& fnum_vis_output = Op::GetAttr<FNumVisibleOutputs>("FNumVisibleOutputs");
   Symbol ret;
   std::unordered_set<Node*> visited;
   for (const auto& p : this->outputs) {
diff --git a/src/pass/infer_shape_type.cc b/src/pass/infer_shape_type.cc
index 75d3d150e..cef44f3b0 100644
--- a/src/pass/infer_shape_type.cc
+++ b/src/pass/infer_shape_type.cc
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@
 namespace nnvm {
 namespace pass {
 namespace {
-// TODO(haibin) change file name to infer_attrs.cc
 template<typename AttrType, typename IsNone, typename FDefault>
 Graph InferAttr(Graph &&ret,
                 const AttrType empty_val,
@@ -20,7 +19,8 @@ Graph InferAttr(Graph &&ret,
                 const char* attr_name,
                 const char* unknown_name,
                 IsNone fis_none,
-                FDefault fdefault) {
+                FDefault fdefault,
+                bool backward_identity_assign) {
   using AttrVector = std::vector<AttrType>;
   const IndexedGraph& idx = ret.indexed_graph();
   static auto& finfer_shape =
@@ -88,7 +88,8 @@ Graph InferAttr(Graph &&ret,
           CHECK(is >> rshape[out_ent_id]) << "Invalid attribute";
         }
       }
-    } else if (is_backward.get(inode.source->op(), false) && inode.control_deps.size()) {
+    } else if (is_backward.get(inode.source->op(), false) &&
+               inode.control_deps.size() && backward_identity_assign) {
       CHECK_GE(inode.control_deps.size(), 1U)
         << "BackwardOp need to have control_deps to its forward op";
       const IndexedGraph::Node& fnode = idx[inode.control_deps[0]];
@@ -208,7 +209,7 @@ NNVM_REGISTER_PASS(InferShape)
         "FInferShape", "shape_inputs", "shape_attr_key",
         "shape", "shape_num_unknown_nodes",
         [](const TShape& s) { return s.ndim() == 0 || s.Size() == 0; },
-        nullptr);
+        nullptr, true);
   })
 .set_change_graph(false)
 .provide_graph_attr("shape");
@@ -241,16 +242,16 @@ inline bool SameType(const NodeAttrs& attrs,
 }
 
 // assigning default type N to both input and output attrs with value -1
-template <int N>
+template <int default_val, int none>
 inline bool DefaultType(const NodeAttrs& attrs,
                      std::vector<int> *iattr,
                      std::vector<int> *oattr) {
   // LOG(INFO) << "DefaultType " << N;
   for (int& v : *oattr) {
-    if (v == -1) v = N;
+    if (v == none) v = default_val;
   }
   for (int& v : *iattr) {
-    if (v == -1) v = N;
+    if (v == none) v = default_val;
   }
   return true;
 }
@@ -258,12 +259,15 @@ inline bool DefaultType(const NodeAttrs& attrs,
 NNVM_REGISTER_PASS(InferStorageType)
 .describe("Infer the storage type of each node entries.")
 .set_body([](Graph ret) {
+    // for storage type, the backward attr is not necessarily the same as it's correspondence
+    const int none = -1;
+    const int kDefaultStorage = 0;
     return InferAttr<int>(
-        std::move(ret), -1,
+        std::move(ret), none,
         "FInferStorageType", "storage_type_inputs", "storage_type_attr_key",
         "storage_type", "storage_type_num_unknown_nodes",
-        [](const int t) { return t == -1; },
-        DefaultType<1>);
+        [](const int t) { return t == none; },
+        DefaultType<kDefaultStorage, none>, false);
   })
 .set_change_graph(false)
 .provide_graph_attr("storage_type");
@@ -276,7 +280,7 @@ NNVM_REGISTER_PASS(InferType)
         "FInferType", "dtype_inputs", "dtype_attr_key",
         "dtype", "dtype_num_unknown_nodes",
         [](const int t) { return t == -1; },
-        SameType);
+        SameType, true);
   })
 .set_change_graph(false)
 .provide_graph_attr("dtype");
diff --git a/tests/python/test_graph.py b/tests/python/test_graph.py
index 59cc12fb3..0500ac091 100644
--- a/tests/python/test_graph.py
+++ b/tests/python/test_graph.py
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ def test_infer_storage_type():
     jnodes = jgraph['nodes']
     jnode_row_ptr = jgraph['node_row_ptr']
     nindex = {n['name']: i for i, n in enumerate(jnodes)}
-    assert g.json_attr('storage_type')[jnode_row_ptr[nindex["add1"]]] == 1
+    assert g.json_attr('storage_type')[jnode_row_ptr[nindex["add1"]]] == 0
 
 def test_place_device():
     x = sym.Variable('x', device_group="stage1")