diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/pull-5011 b/changelog/unreleased/pull-5011
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8bd5ef532
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/pull-5011
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+Bugfix: Fix rare failures to retry locking a repository
+
+Restic 0.17.0 could in rare cases fail to retry locking a repository if
+one of the lock files failed to load. The lock operation failed with error
+`unable to create lock in backend: circuit breaker open for file <lock/1234567890>`
+
+The error handling has been fixed to correctly retry locking the repository.
+
+https://github.com/restic/restic/issues/5005
+https://github.com/restic/restic/pull/5011
diff --git a/internal/backend/retry/backend_retry.go b/internal/backend/retry/backend_retry.go
index 8d0f42bfd..92c285c4b 100644
--- a/internal/backend/retry/backend_retry.go
+++ b/internal/backend/retry/backend_retry.go
@@ -209,9 +209,10 @@ func (be *Backend) Load(ctx context.Context, h backend.Handle, length int, offse
 			return be.Backend.Load(ctx, h, length, offset, consumer)
 		})
 
-	if feature.Flag.Enabled(feature.BackendErrorRedesign) && err != nil && !be.IsPermanentError(err) {
+	if feature.Flag.Enabled(feature.BackendErrorRedesign) && err != nil && ctx.Err() == nil && !be.IsPermanentError(err) {
 		// We've exhausted the retries, the file is likely inaccessible. By excluding permanent
-		// errors, not found or truncated files are not recorded.
+		// errors, not found or truncated files are not recorded. Also ignore errors if the context
+		// was canceled.
 		be.failedLoads.LoadOrStore(key, time.Now())
 	}
 
diff --git a/internal/backend/retry/backend_retry_test.go b/internal/backend/retry/backend_retry_test.go
index fd76200d4..ffb8ae186 100644
--- a/internal/backend/retry/backend_retry_test.go
+++ b/internal/backend/retry/backend_retry_test.go
@@ -357,6 +357,30 @@ func TestBackendLoadCircuitBreaker(t *testing.T) {
 	test.Equals(t, notFound, err, "expected circuit breaker to reset, got %v")
 }
 
+func TestBackendLoadCircuitBreakerCancel(t *testing.T) {
+	cctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
+	be := mock.NewBackend()
+	be.OpenReaderFn = func(ctx context.Context, h backend.Handle, length int, offset int64) (io.ReadCloser, error) {
+		cancel()
+		return nil, errors.New("something")
+	}
+	nilRd := func(rd io.Reader) (err error) {
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	TestFastRetries(t)
+	retryBackend := New(be, 2, nil, nil)
+	// canceling the context should not trip the circuit breaker
+	err := retryBackend.Load(cctx, backend.Handle{Name: "other"}, 0, 0, nilRd)
+	test.Equals(t, context.Canceled, err, "unexpected error")
+
+	// reset context and check that the cirucit breaker does not return an error
+	cctx, cancel = context.WithCancel(context.Background())
+	defer cancel()
+	err = retryBackend.Load(cctx, backend.Handle{Name: "other"}, 0, 0, nilRd)
+	test.Equals(t, context.Canceled, err, "unexpected error")
+}
+
 func TestBackendStatNotExists(t *testing.T) {
 	// stat should not retry if the error matches IsNotExist
 	notFound := errors.New("not found")