diff --git a/src/imap.rs b/src/imap.rs
index d01517bd8..bbcd006a6 100644
--- a/src/imap.rs
+++ b/src/imap.rs
@@ -972,7 +972,7 @@ impl Imap {
         })
     }
 
-    pub fn interrupt_idle(&self) {
+    pub fn interrupt_idle(&self, context: &Context) {
         task::block_on(async move {
             let mut interrupt: Option<stop_token::StopSource> = self.interrupt.lock().await.take();
             if interrupt.is_none() {
@@ -984,7 +984,12 @@ impl Imap {
             }
             // let's manually drop the StopSource
             if interrupt.is_some() {
-                eprintln!("low-level: dropping stop-source to interrupt idle");
+                // the imap thread provided us a stop token but might
+                // not have entered idle_wait yet, give it some time
+                // for that to happen. XXX handle this without extra wait
+                // https://github.com/deltachat/deltachat-core-rust/issues/925
+                std::thread::sleep(Duration::from_millis(200));
+                info!(context, "low-level: dropping stop-source to interrupt idle");
                 std::mem::drop(interrupt)
             }
         });
diff --git a/src/job_thread.rs b/src/job_thread.rs
index 106f98520..4c7e57f11 100644
--- a/src/job_thread.rs
+++ b/src/job_thread.rs
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ impl JobThread {
 
         info!(context, "Interrupting {}-IDLE...", self.name);
 
-        self.imap.interrupt_idle();
+        self.imap.interrupt_idle(context);
 
         let &(ref lock, ref cvar) = &*self.state.clone();
         let mut state = lock.lock().unwrap();