diff --git a/ansible/roles/edge-host/templates/edge-zwave-settings-backup.j2 b/ansible/roles/edge-host/templates/edge-zwave-settings-backup.j2
index 3f55c0fe..864288a3 100644
--- a/ansible/roles/edge-host/templates/edge-zwave-settings-backup.j2
+++ b/ansible/roles/edge-host/templates/edge-zwave-settings-backup.j2
@@ -11,8 +11,9 @@ bak="$src.bak"
 
 # Only back up a plausibly-intact file: non-empty and JSON-object-terminated.
 # This avoids overwriting a good backup with a truncated (mid-write) file.
+# Ignore trailing whitespace — settings.json ends with "}\n".
 [ -s "$src" ] || { echo "settings.json missing/empty — skip"; exit 0; }
-[ "$(tail -c1 "$src")" = "}" ] || { echo "settings.json not }-terminated (mid-write?) — skip"; exit 0; }
+[ "$(tail -c 64 "$src" | tr -d '[:space:]' | tail -c1)" = "}" ] || { echo "settings.json not }-terminated (mid-write?) — skip"; exit 0; }
 
 # Skip if unchanged since the last backup.
 if [ -f "$bak" ] && cmp -s "$src" "$bak"; then