diff --git a/raphtory/src/core/utils/errors.rs b/raphtory/src/core/utils/errors.rs
index 0da4486e41..b6b95d6962 100644
--- a/raphtory/src/core/utils/errors.rs
+++ b/raphtory/src/core/utils/errors.rs
@@ -61,6 +61,18 @@ pub enum LoadError {
     MissingTimeError,
 }
 
+#[cfg(feature = "proto")]
+#[derive(thiserror::Error, Debug)]
+pub enum WriteError {
+    #[cfg(feature = "proto")]
+    #[error("Unrecoverable disk error: {0}, resetting file size failed: {1}")]
+    FatalWriteError(io::Error, io::Error),
+
+    #[cfg(feature = "proto")]
+    #[error("Failed to write delta to cache: {0}")]
+    WriteError(io::Error),
+}
+
 #[derive(thiserror::Error, Debug)]
 pub enum GraphError {
     #[error("You cannot set ‘{0}’ and ‘{1}’ at the same time. Please pick one or the other.")]
@@ -151,7 +163,7 @@ pub enum GraphError {
     #[error("IO operation failed")]
     IOError {
         #[from]
-        source: std::io::Error,
+        source: io::Error,
     },
 
     #[cfg(feature = "arrow")]
@@ -200,10 +212,14 @@ pub enum GraphError {
         "Cannot recover from write failure {write_err}, new updates are invalid: {decode_err}"
     )]
     FatalDecodeError {
-        write_err: io::Error,
+        write_err: WriteError,
         decode_err: prost::DecodeError,
     },
 
+    #[cfg(feature = "proto")]
+    #[error("Cache write error: {0}")]
+    CacheWriteError(#[from] WriteError),
+
     #[cfg(feature = "proto")]
     #[error("Protobuf decode error{0}")]
     EncodeError(#[from] prost::EncodeError),
diff --git a/raphtory/src/serialise/incremental.rs b/raphtory/src/serialise/incremental.rs
index 5269ed37d6..c7a6a08302 100644
--- a/raphtory/src/serialise/incremental.rs
+++ b/raphtory/src/serialise/incremental.rs
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 use crate::{
-    core::{utils::errors::GraphError, Prop, PropType},
+    core::{
+        utils::errors::{GraphError, WriteError},
+        Prop, PropType,
+    },
     db::{
         api::{storage::storage::Storage, view::MaterializedGraph},
         graph::views::deletion_graph::PersistentGraph,
@@ -19,7 +22,7 @@ use raphtory_api::core::{
 use std::{
     fmt::Debug,
     fs::{File, OpenOptions},
-    io::Write,
+    io::{Seek, SeekFrom, Write},
     mem,
     ops::DerefMut,
     path::Path,
@@ -31,6 +34,18 @@ pub struct GraphWriter {
     proto_delta: Mutex<ProtoGraph>,
 }
 
+fn try_write(writer: &mut File, bytes: &[u8]) -> Result<(), WriteError> {
+    let pos = writer
+        .seek(SeekFrom::End(0))
+        .map_err(WriteError::WriteError)?;
+    writer
+        .write_all(bytes)
+        .map_err(|write_err| match writer.set_len(pos) {
+            Ok(_) => WriteError::WriteError(write_err),
+            Err(reset_err) => WriteError::FatalWriteError(write_err, reset_err),
+        })
+}
+
 impl GraphWriter {
     pub fn new(file: File) -> Self {
         Self {
@@ -38,11 +53,14 @@ impl GraphWriter {
             proto_delta: Default::default(),
         }
     }
+
     pub fn write(&self) -> Result<(), GraphError> {
         let mut proto = mem::take(self.proto_delta.lock().deref_mut());
         let bytes = proto.encode_to_vec();
         if !bytes.is_empty() {
-            if let Err(write_err) = self.writer.lock().write_all(&bytes) {
+            let mut writer = self.writer.lock();
+
+            if let Err(write_err) = try_write(&mut writer, &bytes) {
                 // If the write fails, try to put the updates back
                 let mut new_delta = self.proto_delta.lock();
                 let bytes = new_delta.encode_to_vec();
@@ -58,6 +76,7 @@ impl GraphWriter {
                 }
                 return Err(write_err.into());
             }
+            // should we flush the file?
         }
         Ok(())
     }
@@ -276,3 +295,27 @@ impl<G: InternalCache + StableDecode + StableEncode> CacheOps for G {
         Ok(graph)
     }
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod test {
+    use crate::serialise::incremental::GraphWriter;
+    use raphtory_api::core::{
+        entities::{GidRef, VID},
+        storage::dict_mapper::MaybeNew,
+    };
+    use std::fs::File;
+    use tempfile::NamedTempFile;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_write_failure() {
+        let tmp_file = NamedTempFile::new().unwrap();
+        let read_only = File::open(tmp_file.path()).unwrap();
+
+        let cache = GraphWriter::new(read_only);
+        cache.resolve_node(MaybeNew::New(VID(0)), GidRef::Str("0"));
+        let res = cache.write();
+        println!("{res:?}");
+        assert!(res.is_err());
+        assert_eq!(cache.proto_delta.lock().nodes.len(), 1);
+    }
+}