diff --git a/apiserver/apiserver/api/management/commands/generate_backups.py b/apiserver/apiserver/api/management/commands/generate_backups.py
index d32ec50..942e0d8 100644
--- a/apiserver/apiserver/api/management/commands/generate_backups.py
+++ b/apiserver/apiserver/api/management/commands/generate_backups.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 from django.core.management.base import BaseCommand, CommandError
 from django.utils.timezone import now
 from django.core.cache import cache
+from django.db import transaction
 
 from apiserver import secrets, settings
 from apiserver.api import models
@@ -25,6 +26,7 @@ backup_id_string = lambda x: '{}\t{}\t{}'.format(
 class Command(BaseCommand):
     help = 'Generate backups.'
 
+    @transaction.atomic
     def generate_backups(self):
         backup_users = secrets.BACKUP_TOKENS.values()
 
diff --git a/apiserver/apiserver/settings.py b/apiserver/apiserver/settings.py
index f5dfbf8..2b1b935 100644
--- a/apiserver/apiserver/settings.py
+++ b/apiserver/apiserver/settings.py
@@ -116,6 +116,9 @@ DATABASES = {
     'default': {
         'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
         'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'data/db.sqlite3'),
+        'OPTIONS': {
+            'timeout': 20,  # increased because generate_backups.py blocks
+        },
     },
     'old_portal': {
         'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',