diff --git a/flow/Trace.cpp b/flow/Trace.cpp
index 38ea89dad2..9e051a4acd 100644
--- a/flow/Trace.cpp
+++ b/flow/Trace.cpp
@@ -388,6 +388,17 @@ public:
 		eventBuffer.push_back(fields);
 		bufferLength += fields.sizeBytes();
 
+		// If we have queued up a large number of events in simulation, then flush the trace file and throw an error.
+		// This makes it easier to diagnose cases where we get stuck in a loop logging trace events that eventually
+		// runs out of memory. Without this we would never see any trace events from that loop, and it would be more
+		// difficult to identify where the process is actually stuck.
+		if (g_network && g_network->isSimulated() && bufferLength > 1e8) {
+			// Setting this to 0 avoids a recurse from the assertion trace event and also prevents a situation where
+			// we roll the trace log only to log the single assertion event when using --crash.
+			bufferLength = 0;
+			ASSERT(false);
+		}
+
 		if (trackError) {
 			latestEventCache.setLatestError(fields);
 		}