diff --git a/api/pkg/database/size_enforcer.go b/api/pkg/database/size_enforcer.go
index 08914f0e2..a1e98e4d3 100644
--- a/api/pkg/database/size_enforcer.go
+++ b/api/pkg/database/size_enforcer.go
@@ -81,9 +81,6 @@ func checkFileSize(maxSizeBytes int64) {
 }
 
 func pruneOldEntries(currentFileSize int64) {
-	IsDBLocked = true
-	defer func() {IsDBLocked = false}()
-
 	amountOfBytesToTrim := currentFileSize / (100 / percentageOfMaxSizeBytesToPrune)
 
 	rows, err := GetEntriesTable().Limit(10000).Order("id").Rows()
@@ -110,6 +107,10 @@ func pruneOldEntries(currentFileSize int64) {
 	}
 
 	if len(entryIdsToRemove) > 0 {
+		// sqlite locks the database while delete or VACUUM are running and sqlite is terrible at handling its own db lock while a lot of inserts are attempted, we prevent a significant bottleneck by handling the db lock ourselves here
+		IsDBLocked = true
+		defer func() {IsDBLocked = false}()
+
 		GetEntriesTable().Where(entryIdsToRemove).Delete(models.MizuEntry{})
 		// VACUUM causes sqlite to shrink the db file after rows have been deleted, the db file will not shrink without this
 		DB.Exec("VACUUM")