diff --git a/lib/encryption/olm_manager.dart b/lib/encryption/olm_manager.dart
index 75071e3c..a91599af 100644
--- a/lib/encryption/olm_manager.dart
+++ b/lib/encryption/olm_manager.dart
@@ -274,6 +274,14 @@ class OlmManager {
       unusedFallbackKey = false;
     }
 
+    // fixup accidental too many uploads. We delete only one of them so that the server has time to update the counts and because we will get rate limited anyway.
+    if (keyCount > _olmAccount.max_number_of_one_time_keys()) {
+      final requestingKeysFrom = {
+        client.userID: {client.deviceID: 'signed_curve25519'}
+      };
+      client.claimKeys(requestingKeysFrom, timeout: 10000);
+    }
+
     // Only upload keys if they are less than half of the max or we have no unused fallback key
     if (keyCount < (_olmAccount.max_number_of_one_time_keys() / 2) ||
         !unusedFallbackKey) {
diff --git a/lib/src/client.dart b/lib/src/client.dart
index ac039bed..066242ef 100644
--- a/lib/src/client.dart
+++ b/lib/src/client.dart
@@ -1091,7 +1091,7 @@ class Client extends MatrixApi {
       }
       if (database != null) {
         _currentTransaction = database.transaction(() async {
-          await handleSync(syncResp);
+          await _handleSync(syncResp);
           if (prevBatch != syncResp.nextBatch) {
             await database.storePrevBatch(syncResp.nextBatch, id);
           }
@@ -1099,7 +1099,7 @@ class Client extends MatrixApi {
         await _currentTransaction;
         onSyncStatus.add(SyncStatusUpdate(SyncStatus.cleaningUp));
       } else {
-        await handleSync(syncResp);
+        await _handleSync(syncResp);
       }
       if (_disposed || _aborted) return;
       if (prevBatch == null) {
@@ -1145,6 +1145,12 @@ class Client extends MatrixApi {
 
   /// Use this method only for testing utilities!
   Future<void> handleSync(SyncUpdate sync, {bool sortAtTheEnd = false}) async {
+    // ensure we don't upload keys because someone forgot to set a key count
+    sync.deviceOneTimeKeysCount ??= {'signed_curve25519': 100};
+    await _handleSync(sync, sortAtTheEnd: sortAtTheEnd);
+  }
+
+  Future<void> _handleSync(SyncUpdate sync, {bool sortAtTheEnd = false}) async {
     if (sync.toDevice != null) {
       await _handleToDeviceEvents(sync.toDevice);
     }