diff --git a/packages/backend-core/src/db/couch/DatabaseImpl.ts b/packages/backend-core/src/db/couch/DatabaseImpl.ts
index 2b589ed09a..ed79a14340 100644
--- a/packages/backend-core/src/db/couch/DatabaseImpl.ts
+++ b/packages/backend-core/src/db/couch/DatabaseImpl.ts
@@ -328,7 +328,14 @@ export class DatabaseImpl implements Database {
   async sqlDiskCleanup(): Promise<void> {
     const dbName = this.name
     const url = `/${dbName}/_cleanup`
-    return await this._sqlQuery<void>(url, "POST")
+    try {
+      await this._sqlQuery<void>(url, "POST")
+    } catch (err: any) {
+      // hack for now - SQS throws a 500 when there is nothing to clean-up
+      if (err.status !== 500) {
+        throw err
+      }
+    }
   }
 
   // removes a document from sqlite