# Weaviate backup stuck in STARTED state forever
## The problem
Running a backup on Weaviate 1.25.5 (Helm chart, single instance, S3 backend) left the backup stuck in STARTED state for hours on a tiny dataset (~7k objects), with the status endpoint never advancing. The reporter noted this happened even on a fresh single-instance install with plenty of free space, ruling out the usual disk-full explanation. Strace showed the server churning on LSM compaction scratch files during the backup, suggesting a stuck compaction blocking the backup's progress tracking.
## The verified fix
This was a real bug, fixed by weaviate PR #5923 (confirmed by maintainer dirkkul when closing the issue). If backups hang in STARTED indefinitely, upgrade to a Weaviate version containing that fix.
Source: https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/issues/5214