diff --git a/src/controllers/AssetIndexesController.php b/src/controllers/AssetIndexesController.php
index 114d3621ff1..300c597cb83 100644
--- a/src/controllers/AssetIndexesController.php
+++ b/src/controllers/AssetIndexesController.php
@@ -151,6 +151,14 @@ public function actionProcessIndexingSession(): Response
         if (!$indexingSession->actionRequired) {
             $indexingSession = $assetIndexer->processIndexSession($indexingSession);
 
+            if ($indexingSession->forceStop) {
+                $assetIndexer->stopIndexingSession($indexingSession);
+                return $this->asFailure(data: [
+                    'stop' => $sessionId,
+                    'message' => Craft::t('app', 'There was an issue indexing assets.'),
+                ]);
+            }
+
             // If action is now required, we just processed the last entry
             // To save a round-trip, just pull the session review data
             if ($indexingSession->actionRequired) {
diff --git a/src/models/AssetIndexingSession.php b/src/models/AssetIndexingSession.php
index 6cdf0b73cc3..b270360df97 100644
--- a/src/models/AssetIndexingSession.php
+++ b/src/models/AssetIndexingSession.php
@@ -86,4 +86,10 @@ class AssetIndexingSession extends Model
      * @since 4.4.0
      */
     public bool $processIfRootEmpty = false;
+
+    /**
+     * @var bool Whether we should stop processing the session because there was a problem.
+     * @since 4.14.0
+     */
+    public bool $forceStop = false;
 }
diff --git a/src/services/AssetIndexer.php b/src/services/AssetIndexer.php
index 6b5da101bd5..ae228f0847b 100644
--- a/src/services/AssetIndexer.php
+++ b/src/services/AssetIndexer.php
@@ -307,6 +307,26 @@ public function processIndexSession(AssetIndexingSession $indexingSession): Asse
 
         // The most likely scenario is that the last entry is being worked on.
         if (!$indexEntry && !$indexingSession->processIfRootEmpty) {
+            // if indexEntry is null here, we should also check if there's anything in the assetindexdata table at all
+            // (if not, it could have been deleted when clearing caches)
+            // if that table is empty, we'll get into an infinite loop, calling processIndexSession with the same data all the time
+            // (and it'll be very hard to discard the session via ui)
+            if ($indexingSession->processedEntries < $indexingSession->totalEntries) {
+                $count = (new Query())
+                    ->from([Table::ASSETINDEXDATA])
+                    ->where([
+                        'sessionId' => $indexingSession->id,
+                        'completed' => false,
+                        'inProgress' => false,
+                    ])
+                    ->count();
+
+                if ((int)$count === 0) {
+                    Craft::warning('The assetindexdata table is empty; Can’t proceed with indexing.');
+                    $indexingSession->forceStop = true;
+                }
+            }
+
             $mutex->release($lockName);
             return $indexingSession;
         }