diff --git a/src/routes/test/apps-test.js b/src/routes/test/apps-test.js
index e103d0382..7c70cb31b 100644
--- a/src/routes/test/apps-test.js
+++ b/src/routes/test/apps-test.js
@@ -165,7 +165,6 @@ function startBox(done) {
     process.env.TEST_CREATE_INFRA = 1;
 
     safe.fs.unlinkSync(paths.INFRA_VERSION_FILE);
-    child_process.execSync('docker ps -qa | xargs --no-run-if-empty docker rm -f');
 
     async.series([
         // first clear, then start server. otherwise, taskmanager spins up tasks for obsolete appIds
diff --git a/src/test/setupTest b/src/test/setupTest
index d0a580e15..167bafe57 100755
--- a/src/test/setupTest
+++ b/src/test/setupTest
@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@ mkdir -p platformdata/addons/mail platformdata/nginx/cert platformdata/nginx/app
 # put cert
 openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout platformdata/nginx/cert/host.key -out platformdata/nginx/cert/host.cert -days 3650 -subj '/CN=localhost' -nodes -config <(cat /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf <(printf "\n[SAN]\nsubjectAltName=DNS:*.localhost"))
 
+# clear out any containers
+docker ps -qa | xargs --no-run-if-empty docker rm -f
+
 # create docker network (while the infra code does this, most tests skip infra setup)
 docker network create --subnet=172.18.0.0/16 cloudron || true