diff --git a/nix/gitlab-ci/default.nix b/nix/gitlab-ci/default.nix
index cb657d997d..0b701d2efb 100644
--- a/nix/gitlab-ci/default.nix
+++ b/nix/gitlab-ci/default.nix
@@ -25,7 +25,8 @@ let
       script = [
         "nix run -f ./ third_party.nixpkgs.bash -c ./hack/populate_secrets.sh"
         "nix build -v -f ./ci-root.nix --substituters \"https://cache.nixos.org/ s3://lukegb-nix-cache?endpoint=storage.googleapis.com&trusted=1\""
-        "cp /nix/var/nix/db/db.sqlite db.sqlite"
+        "sleep 10"  # give sqlite some time to sync :(
+        "cp /nix/var/nix/db/db.sqlite* ./"
         "GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=$HOME/sa.json nix run -f ./ go.nix.bcacheup -c bcacheup --cache_url gs://lukegb-nix-cache --nix_store_db ./db.sqlite ./result"
         "cat ./result/other-systemPathJSON > systems.json"
       ];