diff --git a/backend/onyx/background/celery/tasks/indexing/tasks.py b/backend/onyx/background/celery/tasks/indexing/tasks.py
index eb4284ff1eb..0eea0a7aa3b 100644
--- a/backend/onyx/background/celery/tasks/indexing/tasks.py
+++ b/backend/onyx/background/celery/tasks/indexing/tasks.py
@@ -899,6 +899,9 @@ def connector_indexing_proxy_task(
 
     TODO(rkuo): refactor this so that there is a single return path where we canonically
     log the result of running this function.
+
+    NOTE: we try/except all db access in this function because as a watchdog, this function
+    needs to be extremely stable.
     """
     start = time.monotonic()
 
@@ -1016,7 +1019,7 @@ def connector_indexing_proxy_task(
                     job.release()
                     break
 
-            # if a termination signal is detected, clean up and break
+            # if a termination signal is detected, break (exit point will clean up)
             if self.request.id and redis_connector_index.terminating(self.request.id):
                 task_logger.warning(
                     log_builder.build("Indexing watchdog - termination signal detected")
@@ -1025,6 +1028,7 @@ def connector_indexing_proxy_task(
                 result.status = IndexingWatchdogTerminalStatus.TERMINATED_BY_SIGNAL
                 break
 
+            # if activity timeout is detected, break (exit point will clean up)
             if not redis_connector_index.connector_active():
                 task_logger.warning(
                     log_builder.build(
@@ -1033,25 +1037,6 @@ def connector_indexing_proxy_task(
                     )
                 )
 
-                try:
-                    with get_session_with_current_tenant() as db_session:
-                        mark_attempt_failed(
-                            index_attempt_id,
-                            db_session,
-                            "Indexing watchdog - activity timeout exceeded: "
-                            f"attempt={index_attempt_id} "
-                            f"timeout={CELERY_INDEXING_WATCHDOG_CONNECTOR_TIMEOUT}s",
-                        )
-                except Exception:
-                    # if the DB exceptions, we'll just get an unfriendly failure message
-                    # in the UI instead of the cancellation message
-                    logger.exception(
-                        log_builder.build(
-                            "Indexing watchdog - transient exception marking index attempt as failed"
-                        )
-                    )
-
-                job.cancel()
                 result.status = (
                     IndexingWatchdogTerminalStatus.TERMINATED_BY_ACTIVITY_TIMEOUT
                 )
@@ -1071,8 +1056,6 @@ def connector_indexing_proxy_task(
                     if not index_attempt.is_finished():
                         continue
             except Exception:
-                # if the DB exceptioned, just restart the check.
-                # polling the index attempt status doesn't need to be strongly consistent
                 task_logger.exception(
                     log_builder.build(
                         "Indexing watchdog - transient exception looking up index attempt"
@@ -1139,8 +1122,6 @@ def connector_indexing_proxy_task(
                     "Connector termination signal detected",
                 )
         except Exception:
-            # if the DB exceptions, we'll just get an unfriendly failure message
-            # in the UI instead of the cancellation message
             task_logger.exception(
                 log_builder.build(
                     "Indexing watchdog - transient exception marking index attempt as canceled"
@@ -1148,6 +1129,25 @@ def connector_indexing_proxy_task(
             )
 
         job.cancel()
+    elif result.status == IndexingWatchdogTerminalStatus.TERMINATED_BY_ACTIVITY_TIMEOUT:
+        try:
+            with get_session_with_current_tenant() as db_session:
+                mark_attempt_failed(
+                    index_attempt_id,
+                    db_session,
+                    "Indexing watchdog - activity timeout exceeded: "
+                    f"attempt={index_attempt_id} "
+                    f"timeout={CELERY_INDEXING_WATCHDOG_CONNECTOR_TIMEOUT}s",
+                )
+        except Exception:
+            logger.exception(
+                log_builder.build(
+                    "Indexing watchdog - transient exception marking index attempt as failed"
+                )
+            )
+        job.cancel()
+    else:
+        pass
 
     task_logger.info(
         log_builder.build(
diff --git a/backend/onyx/indexing/indexing_pipeline.py b/backend/onyx/indexing/indexing_pipeline.py
index d750a5dcff9..76dc20ecb06 100644
--- a/backend/onyx/indexing/indexing_pipeline.py
+++ b/backend/onyx/indexing/indexing_pipeline.py
@@ -173,7 +173,10 @@ def index_doc_batch_with_handler(
             tenant_id=tenant_id,
         )
     except Exception as e:
-        logger.exception(f"Failed to index document batch: {document_batch}")
+        # don't log the batch directly, it's too much text
+        document_ids = [doc.id for doc in document_batch]
+        logger.exception(f"Failed to index document batch: {document_ids}")
+
         index_pipeline_result = IndexingPipelineResult(
             new_docs=0,
             total_docs=len(document_batch),