diff --git a/ansible/roles/podman/templates/nextcloud/nextcloud-backup-alert.sh.j2 b/ansible/roles/podman/templates/nextcloud/nextcloud-backup-alert.sh.j2
index 1e72623..9598b8e 100644
--- a/ansible/roles/podman/templates/nextcloud/nextcloud-backup-alert.sh.j2
+++ b/ansible/roles/podman/templates/nextcloud/nextcloud-backup-alert.sh.j2
@@ -42,6 +42,15 @@ $(journalctl -u "$UNIT" -n 40 --no-pager -o cat 2>/dev/null)"
 
 echo "$body" | logger -t "$TAG" -p "$prio"
 
+# Only genuine failures are worth an email. A spurious invocation carries no
+# action for a human, and mailing it trains the reader to ignore the subject
+# line -- which defeats the point of having the alert at all. The journald
+# record above is kept either way, so spurious triggers stay greppable.
+if [ "$state" != "failed" ]; then
+  logger -t "$TAG" -p daemon.info -- "alert_mail=skipped reason=$state"
+  exit 0
+fi
+
 # Mail is best-effort: if the MTA is not configured the journald record above
 # is still the authoritative signal, so never fail the handler on this.
 if command -v sendmail >/dev/null 2>&1; then