diff --git a/InvenTree/InvenTree/settings.py b/InvenTree/InvenTree/settings.py
index 392f7aa84e..5940887e3d 100644
--- a/InvenTree/InvenTree/settings.py
+++ b/InvenTree/InvenTree/settings.py
@@ -885,3 +885,4 @@ if DEBUG or TESTING:
 # Plugin test settings
 PLUGIN_TESTING = get_setting('PLUGIN_TESTING', TESTING)  # are plugins beeing tested?
 PLUGIN_TESTING_SETUP = get_setting('PLUGIN_TESTING_SETUP', False)  # load plugins from setup hooks in testing?
+PLUGIN_RETRY = get_setting('PLUGIN_RETRY', 5 if not TESTING else 1)  # how often should plugin loading be tried?
diff --git a/InvenTree/plugin/registry.py b/InvenTree/plugin/registry.py
index 06298613a9..f0e5ce8055 100644
--- a/InvenTree/plugin/registry.py
+++ b/InvenTree/plugin/registry.py
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ class Plugins:
 
         registered_sucessfull = False
         blocked_plugin = None
+        retry_counter = settings.PLUGIN_RETRY
         while not registered_sucessfull:
             try:
                 # we are using the db so for migrations etc we need to try this block
@@ -84,6 +85,13 @@ class Plugins:
                 self._clean_installed_apps()
                 self._activate_plugins(force_reload=True)
 
+                # we do not want to end in an endless loop
+                retry_counter -=1
+                if retry_counter <= 0:
+                    if settings.PLUGIN_TESTING:
+                        print('Max retries, breaking loading')
+                    break
+
                 # now the loading will re-start up with init
 
         # remove maintenance