diff --git a/test/system/conversations/messages/images_test.rb b/test/system/conversations/messages/images_test.rb
index af3f07d1..39eaeedc 100644
--- a/test/system/conversations/messages/images_test.rb
+++ b/test/system/conversations/messages/images_test.rb
@@ -97,13 +97,27 @@ class ConversationMessagesImagesTest < ApplicationSystemTestCase
       modal_loader    = modal_container.find_role("image-loader")
       modal_img       = modal_container.find("img", visible: :all)
 
-      assert_true "image loader should be visible", wait: 3 do
+      assert_true "image loader should be visible", wait: 0.6 do
         loader.visible?
       end
       refute img.visible?
 
       image_btn.click
 
+      retries = 0
+      begin
+        2.times do
+          sleep 0.1
+          sleep 0.5 if !modal_loader.visible?
+          sleep 0.1
+          image_btn.click if !modal_loader.visible?
+        end # TODO: sometimes modal has not popped up after clicking, why?? Try 2x times before failing the test.
+      rescue Selenium::WebDriver::Error::ElementClickInterceptedError => e
+        retires += 1
+        retry if retries < 2
+        raise e
+      end
+
       assert_true "modal image loader should be visible", wait: 3 do
         modal_loader.visible?
       end
diff --git a/test/test_helper.rb b/test/test_helper.rb
index ad1acbf7..77a4884a 100644
--- a/test/test_helper.rb
+++ b/test/test_helper.rb
@@ -65,3 +65,7 @@ class TestCase
     fixtures :all
   end
 end
+
+class ActionDispatch::SystemTestCase
+  parallelize(workers: Etc.nprocessors/2)
+end