diff --git a/src/addons.js b/src/addons.js
index 7e2c0ae4c..ff28f3253 100644
--- a/src/addons.js
+++ b/src/addons.js
@@ -325,7 +325,12 @@ function importDatabase(addon, callback) {
             async.series([
                 KNOWN_ADDONS[addon].setup.bind(null, app, app.manifest.addons[addon]),
                 KNOWN_ADDONS[addon].restore.bind(null, app, app.manifest.addons[addon])
-            ], iteratorCallback);
+            ], function (error) {
+                if (!error) return iteratorCallback();
+
+                debug(`importDatabase: Error importing ${addon} of app ${app.id}. Marking as errored`, error);
+                appdb.update(app.id, { installationState: appdb.ISTATE_ERROR, installationProgress: error.message }, iteratorCallback);
+            });
         }, callback);
     });
 }
@@ -1063,7 +1068,6 @@ function startMongodb(existingInfra, callback) {
     const cloudronToken = hat(8 * 128);
     const memoryLimit = (1 + Math.round(os.totalmem()/(1024*1024*1024)/4)) * 200;
 
-
     const upgrading = existingInfra.version !== 'none' && requiresUpgrade(existingInfra.images.mongodb.tag, tag);
 
     if (upgrading) {
diff --git a/src/platform.js b/src/platform.js
index b7f6fb912..9d6962bd7 100644
--- a/src/platform.js
+++ b/src/platform.js
@@ -60,10 +60,11 @@ function start(callback) {
 
     async.series([
         stopContainers.bind(null, existingInfra),
+        // mark app state before we start addons. this gives the db import logic a chance to mark an app as errored
+        startApps.bind(null, existingInfra),
         graphs.startGraphite.bind(null, existingInfra),
         addons.startAddons.bind(null, existingInfra),
         pruneInfraImages,
-        startApps.bind(null, existingInfra),
         fs.writeFile.bind(fs, paths.INFRA_VERSION_FILE, JSON.stringify(infra, null, 4))
     ], function (error) {
         if (error) return callback(error);