diff --git a/api/src/controllers/seed/images.ts b/api/src/controllers/seed/images.ts
index 55b9edec..18e5faa2 100644
--- a/api/src/controllers/seed/images.ts
+++ b/api/src/controllers/seed/images.ts
@@ -25,58 +25,85 @@ type ImageTask = {
 // requests are not blocked by image downloading or blurhash calculation
 export const enqueueImage = async (
 	tx: typeof db,
-	url: string,
+	img: Omit<ImageTask, "id">,
 ): Promise<Image> => {
 	const hasher = new Bun.CryptoHasher("sha256");
-	hasher.update(url);
+	hasher.update(img.url);
 	const id = hasher.digest().toString("hex");
 
-	await tx.insert(mqueue).values({ kind: "image", message: { id, url } });
+	await tx.insert(mqueue).values({ kind: "image", message: { id, ...img } });
+	await tx.execute(sql`notify image`);
 
 	return {
 		id,
-		source: url,
+		source: img.url,
 		blurhash: "",
 	};
 };
 
 export const enqueueOptImage = async (
 	tx: typeof db,
-	url: string | null,
+	img: Omit<ImageTask, "id">,
 ): Promise<Image | null> => {
-	if (!url) return null;
-	return await enqueueImage(tx, url);
+	if (!img.url) return null;
+	return await enqueueImage(tx, img);
 };
 
 export const processImages = async () => {
-	await db.transaction(async (tx) => {
-		const [item] = await tx
-			.select()
-			.from(mqueue)
-			.for("update", { skipLocked: true })
-			.where(eq(mqueue.kind, "image"))
-			.orderBy(mqueue.createdAt)
-			.limit(1);
+	async function processOne() {
+		return await db.transaction(async (tx) => {
+			const [item] = await tx
+				.select()
+				.from(mqueue)
+				.for("update", { skipLocked: true })
+				.where(eq(mqueue.kind, "image"))
+				.orderBy(mqueue.createdAt)
+				.limit(1);
 
-		const img = item.message as ImageTask;
-		const blurhash = await downloadImage(img.id, img.url);
+			if (!item) return false;
 
-		const table = schema[img.table as keyof typeof schema] as any;
+			const img = item.message as ImageTask;
+			const blurhash = await downloadImage(img.id, img.url);
 
-		await tx
-			.update(table)
-			.set({
-				[img.column]: { id: img.id, source: img.url, blurhash } satisfies Image,
-			})
-			.where(eq(sql`${table[img.column]}->'id'`, img.id));
+			const table = schema[img.table as keyof typeof schema] as any;
 
-		await tx.delete(mqueue).where(eq(mqueue.id, item.id));
-	});
+			await tx
+				.update(table)
+				.set({
+					[img.column]: {
+						id: img.id,
+						source: img.url,
+						blurhash,
+					} satisfies Image,
+				})
+				.where(eq(sql`${table[img.column]}->'id'`, img.id));
+
+			await tx.delete(mqueue).where(eq(mqueue.id, item.id));
+			return true;
+		});
+	}
+
+	let running = false;
+	async function processAll() {
+		if (running) return;
+		running = true;
+
+		let found = true;
+		while (found) {
+			found = await processOne();
+		}
+		running = false;
+	}
 
 	const client = (await db.$client.connect()) as PoolClient;
 	client.on("notification", (evt) => {
 		if (evt.channel !== "image") return;
+		processAll();
 	});
+	await client.query("listen image");
+
+	// start processing old tasks
+	await processAll();
 };
 
 async function downloadImage(id: string, url: string): Promise<string> {