diff --git a/tvix/castore/src/directoryservice/bigtable.rs b/tvix/castore/src/directoryservice/bigtable.rs
index 372135628..bee2fb15a 100644
--- a/tvix/castore/src/directoryservice/bigtable.rs
+++ b/tvix/castore/src/directoryservice/bigtable.rs
@@ -118,7 +118,9 @@ impl BigtableDirectoryService {
             .expect("failed to spwan emulator");
 
         Retry::spawn(
-            ExponentialBackoff::from_millis(20).max_delay(Duration::from_secs(1)),
+            ExponentialBackoff::from_millis(20)
+                .max_delay(Duration::from_secs(1))
+                .take(3),
             || async {
                 if socket_path.exists() {
                     Ok(())
diff --git a/tvix/store/src/pathinfoservice/bigtable.rs b/tvix/store/src/pathinfoservice/bigtable.rs
index cb1683016..f49ef475e 100644
--- a/tvix/store/src/pathinfoservice/bigtable.rs
+++ b/tvix/store/src/pathinfoservice/bigtable.rs
@@ -119,7 +119,9 @@ impl BigtablePathInfoService {
             .expect("failed to spwan emulator");
 
         Retry::spawn(
-            ExponentialBackoff::from_millis(20).max_delay(Duration::from_secs(1)),
+            ExponentialBackoff::from_millis(20)
+                .max_delay(Duration::from_secs(1))
+                .take(3),
             || async {
                 if socket_path.exists() {
                     Ok(())