diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 7081dc712..90adc2e05 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -2864,3 +2864,6 @@
 * fix "happy eyeballs" quirk in nodejs
 * Update nodejs to 20.18.0
 
+[8.2.0]
+* rsync: show better error message with too many empty dirs, symlinks or executables
+
diff --git a/src/backupformat/rsync.js b/src/backupformat/rsync.js
index f62df9d6e..3e5032f06 100644
--- a/src/backupformat/rsync.js
+++ b/src/backupformat/rsync.js
@@ -123,15 +123,24 @@ async function saveFsMetadata(dataLayout, metadataFile) {
         symlinks: []
     };
 
+    const MAX_FILES = 20000; // this is just a rough upper bound
+
     // we assume small number of files. spawnSync will raise a ENOBUFS error after maxBuffer
     for (const lp of dataLayout.localPaths()) {
-        const emptyDirs = await shell.spawn('find', [lp, '-type', 'd', '-empty'], { encoding: 'utf8', maxBuffer: 1024 * 1024 * 80 });
+        const [emptyDirsError, emptyDirs] = await safe(shell.spawn('find', [lp, '-type', 'd', '-empty'], { encoding: 'utf8', maxLines: MAX_FILES }));
+        if (emptyDirsError && emptyDirsError.stdoutLineCount >= MAX_FILES) throw new BoxError(BoxError.FS_ERROR, `Too many empty directories. Run "find ${lp} -type d -empty" to investigate`);
+        if (emptyDirsError) throw emptyDirsError;
         if (emptyDirs.length) metadata.emptyDirs = metadata.emptyDirs.concat(emptyDirs.trim().split('\n').map((ed) => dataLayout.toRemotePath(ed)));
 
-        const execFiles = await shell.spawn('find', [lp, '-type', 'f', '-executable'], { encoding: 'utf8', maxBuffer: 1024 * 1024 * 80 });
+        const [execFilesError, execFiles] = await safe(shell.spawn('find', [lp, '-type', 'f', '-executable'], { encoding: 'utf8', maxLines: MAX_FILES }));
+        if (execFilesError && execFilesError.stdoutLineCount >= MAX_FILES) throw new BoxError(BoxError.FS_ERROR, `Too many executable files. Run "find ${lp} -type f -executable" to investigate`);
+        if (execFilesError) throw execFilesError;
         if (execFiles.length) metadata.execFiles = metadata.execFiles.concat(execFiles.trim().split('\n').map((ef) => dataLayout.toRemotePath(ef)));
 
-        const symlinkFiles = await shell.spawn('find', [lp, '-type', 'l'], { encoding: 'utf8', maxBuffer: 1024 * 1024 * 30 });
+        const [symlinkFilesError, symlinkFiles] = await safe(shell.spawn('find', [lp, '-type', 'l'], { encoding: 'utf8', maxLines: MAX_FILES }));
+        if (symlinkFilesError && symlinkFilesError.stdoutLineCount >= MAX_FILES) throw new BoxError(BoxError.FS_ERROR, `Too many symlinks. Run "find ${lp} -type l" to investigate`);
+        if (symlinkFilesError) throw symlinkFilesError;
+
         if (symlinkFiles.length) metadata.symlinks = metadata.symlinks.concat(symlinkFiles.trim().split('\n').map((sl) => {
             const target = safe.fs.readlinkSync(sl);
             return { path: dataLayout.toRemotePath(sl), target };