diff --git a/src/core.c b/src/core.c
index 3f52d4e2..0a2d1da3 100644
--- a/src/core.c
+++ b/src/core.c
@@ -14459,7 +14459,10 @@ __cold static int __must_check_result override_meta(MDBX_env *env,
     osal_flush_incoherent_mmap(env->me_map, pgno2bytes(env, NUM_METAS),
                                env->me_os_psize);
   }
-  eASSERT(env, !env->me_txn && !env->me_txn0);
+  eASSERT(env, (!env->me_txn && !env->me_txn0) ||
+                   (env->me_stuck_meta == (int)target &&
+                    (env->me_flags & (MDBX_EXCLUSIVE | MDBX_RDONLY)) ==
+                        MDBX_EXCLUSIVE));
   return rc;
 }