diff --git a/src/main.cpp b/src/main.cpp
index a4159e11a..0f2d36afd 100644
--- a/src/main.cpp
+++ b/src/main.cpp
@@ -663,6 +663,8 @@ void setup()
     rp2040Setup();
 #endif
 
+    initSPI(); // needed here before reading from littleFS
+
     // We do this as early as possible because this loads preferences from flash
     // but we need to do this after main cpu init (esp32setup), because we need the random seed set
     nodeDB = new NodeDB;
@@ -726,7 +728,6 @@ void setup()
 #endif
 
     // Init our SPI controller (must be before screen and lora)
-    initSPI();
 #ifdef ARCH_RP2040
 #ifdef HW_SPI1_DEVICE
     SPI1.setSCK(LORA_SCK);
diff --git a/src/mesh/NodeDB.cpp b/src/mesh/NodeDB.cpp
index 3720b23a6..509e84394 100644
--- a/src/mesh/NodeDB.cpp
+++ b/src/mesh/NodeDB.cpp
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 #if HAS_WIFI
 #include "mesh/wifi/WiFiAPClient.h"
 #endif
+#include "SPILock.h"
 #include "modules/StoreForwardModule.h"
 #include <Preferences.h>
 #include <esp_efuse.h>
@@ -885,6 +886,9 @@ void NodeDB::loadFromDisk()
 bool NodeDB::saveProto(const char *filename, size_t protoSize, const pb_msgdesc_t *fields, const void *dest_struct,
                        bool fullAtomic)
 {
+#ifdef ARCH_ESP32
+    concurrency::LockGuard g(spiLock);
+#endif
     bool okay = false;
 #ifdef FSCom
     auto f = SafeFile(filename, fullAtomic);