diff --git a/bilby/bilby_mcmc/sampler.py b/bilby/bilby_mcmc/sampler.py
index 6485ce1a00bfddb52e0d5e11d608ba20044a6ef8..3d43d7352f04f5cce79ce8f452bd7c753a015da4 100644
--- a/bilby/bilby_mcmc/sampler.py
+++ b/bilby/bilby_mcmc/sampler.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import datetime
 import os
 import time
 from collections import Counter
+from pathlib import Path
 
 import numpy as np
 import pandas as pd
@@ -387,9 +388,10 @@ class Bilby_MCMC(MCMCSampler):
             logger.info("Written checkpoint file {}".format(self.resume_file))
         else:
             logger.warning(
-                "Cannot write pickle resume file! "
-                "Job will not resume if interrupted."
+                "Cannot write pickle resume file! Job may not resume if interrupted."
             )
+            # Touch the file to postpone next check-point attempt
+            Path(self.resume_file).touch(exist_ok=True)
         self.ptsampler.pool = _pool
 
     def print_long_progress(self):