diff --git a/scripts/cloudron-support b/scripts/cloudron-support
index 55848398e..60109a4f9 100755
--- a/scripts/cloudron-support
+++ b/scripts/cloudron-support
@@ -295,7 +295,8 @@ function check_dashboard_cert() {
 function check_nginx() {
     local -r dashboard_domain=$(mysql -NB -uroot -ppassword -e "SELECT value FROM box.settings WHERE name='dashboard_domain'" 2>/dev/null)
 
-    if ! systemctl is-active -q nginx; then
+    # it is possible nginx is running but can't be restarted
+    if ! systemctl reload -q nginx; then
         fail "nginx is down. Removing extraneous dashboard domain configs ..."
 
         # we had a bug where old dashboard domain config file was kept around