diff --git a/src/backups.js b/src/backups.js
index 41dcf2dbe..57b246915 100644
--- a/src/backups.js
+++ b/src/backups.js
@@ -249,7 +249,7 @@ async function startBackupTask(auditSource) {
 
     await eventlog.add(eventlog.ACTION_BACKUP_START, auditSource, { taskId });
 
-    tasks.startTask(taskId, { timeout: 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000 /* 24 hours */, nice: 15, memoryLimit }, async function (error, backupId) {
+    tasks.startTask(taskId, { timeout: 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000 /* 24 hours */, nice: 15, memoryLimit, oomScoreAdjust: -999 }, async function (error, backupId) {
         locker.unlock(locker.OP_FULL_BACKUP);
 
         const errorMessage = error ? error.message : '';
diff --git a/src/scripts/backupupload.js b/src/scripts/backupupload.js
index cbdf59c7c..551ca680f 100755
--- a/src/scripts/backupupload.js
+++ b/src/scripts/backupupload.js
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ function throttledProgressCallback(msecs) {
     let lastProgress = null;
 
     return function (progress) {
-        let now = Date.now();
+        const now = Date.now();
         if (lastProgress && ((now - lastProgress) < msecs)) return;
         process.send(progress);
         lastProgress = now;
diff --git a/src/scripts/starttask.sh b/src/scripts/starttask.sh
index 93ac1aa3c..e01e246cc 100755
--- a/src/scripts/starttask.sh
+++ b/src/scripts/starttask.sh
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ readonly task_id="$1"
 readonly logfile="$2"
 readonly nice="$3"
 readonly memory_limit_mb="$4" # SI units
+readonly oom_score_adjust="$5"
 
 readonly service_name="box-task-${task_id}"
 systemctl reset-failed "${service_name}" 2>/dev/null || true
@@ -31,7 +32,7 @@ systemctl reset-failed "${service_name}" 2>/dev/null || true
 readonly id=$(id -u $SUDO_USER)
 readonly ubuntu_version=$(lsb_release -rs)
 
-options="-p TimeoutStopSec=10s -p MemoryMax=${memory_limit_mb}M --pipe --wait"
+options="-p TimeoutStopSec=10s -p MemoryMax=${memory_limit_mb}M -p OOMScoreAdjust=${oom_score_adjust} --pipe --wait"
 
 # Note: BindsTo will kill this task when the box is stopped. but will not kill this task when restarted!
 # For this reason, we have code to kill the tasks both on shutdown and startup.
diff --git a/src/tasks.js b/src/tasks.js
index f13eb18cd..1f8e3d058 100644
--- a/src/tasks.js
+++ b/src/tasks.js
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ function startTask(id, options, onTaskFinished) {
 
     const sudoOptions = { preserveEnv: true, logStream: null };
     if (constants.TEST) sudoOptions.logStream = fs.createWriteStream('/dev/null'); // without this output is messed up, not sure why
-    gTasks[id] = shell.sudo('startTask', [ START_TASK_CMD, id, logFile, options.nice || 0, options.memoryLimit || 400 ], sudoOptions, async function (sudoError) {
+    gTasks[id] = shell.sudo('startTask', [ START_TASK_CMD, id, logFile, options.nice || 0, options.memoryLimit || 400, options.oomScoreAdjust || 0 ], sudoOptions, async function (sudoError) {
         if (!gTasks[id]) return; // ignore task exit since we are shutting down. see stopAllTasks
 
         const code = sudoError ? sudoError.code : 0;