diff --git a/packages/backend/jest.config.e2e.cjs b/packages/backend/jest.config.e2e.cjs
index 4502da47df..6927185134 100644
--- a/packages/backend/jest.config.e2e.cjs
+++ b/packages/backend/jest.config.e2e.cjs
@@ -12,4 +12,5 @@ module.exports = {
 	testMatch: [
 		"<rootDir>/test/e2e/**/*.ts",
 	],
+	maxConcurrency: 1, // these tests share a database, running more than one at a time is a bad idea
 };