diff --git a/server/src/services/backupService.ts b/server/src/services/backupService.ts
index de3731c2..79a6befa 100644
--- a/server/src/services/backupService.ts
+++ b/server/src/services/backupService.ts
@@ -184,9 +184,21 @@ export async function createBackup(): Promise<BackupInfo> {
         // Exclude the place-photo and trek-memory caches: both are re-derivable
         // (re-fetched on demand, keyed on stable ids) and would otherwise dominate
         // backup size. Restores self-heal — the cache dirs are recreated at startup.
+        //
+        // Also exclude backups/ and restore-*/: these live under data/, not uploads/,
+        // but when an install maps data and uploads to the SAME directory (a
+        // misconfiguration, but a catastrophic one) the glob would otherwise sweep
+        // every prior backup zip into the new archive — each run embedding all
+        // previous runs, so size compounds without bound (see issue #1358). Ignoring
+        // them keeps the backup bounded regardless of how the volumes are mounted.
         archive.glob(
           '**/*',
-          { cwd: uploadsDir, ignore: ['photos/google/**', 'photos/trek/**'], nodir: true, dot: true },
+          {
+            cwd: uploadsDir,
+            ignore: ['photos/google/**', 'photos/trek/**', 'backups/**', 'restore-*/**'],
+            nodir: true,
+            dot: true,
+          },
           { prefix: 'uploads' },
         );
       }
diff --git a/server/tests/unit/services/backupService.test.ts b/server/tests/unit/services/backupService.test.ts
index 9fdca6f8..a23c9cf3 100644
--- a/server/tests/unit/services/backupService.test.ts
+++ b/server/tests/unit/services/backupService.test.ts
@@ -475,7 +475,7 @@ describe('BACKUP-036 createBackup', () => {
       '**/*',
       expect.objectContaining({
         cwd: expect.stringContaining('uploads'),
-        ignore: ['photos/google/**', 'photos/trek/**'],
+        ignore: ['photos/google/**', 'photos/trek/**', 'backups/**', 'restore-*/**'],
       }),
       { prefix: 'uploads' },
     );
@@ -483,6 +483,38 @@ describe('BACKUP-036 createBackup', () => {
     expect(archiverInstanceMock.directory).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
   });
 
+  it('BACKUP-036h — never sweeps backups/ or restore-* into the archive (issue #1358)', async () => {
+    // Regression guard: when data and uploads map to the same directory, the
+    // uploads glob would otherwise pick up the backups/ dir and recursively
+    // embed every prior backup zip, compounding size without bound.
+    fsMock.existsSync.mockImplementation((p: string) => String(p).endsWith('uploads'));
+    fsMock.mkdirSync.mockReturnValue(undefined);
+
+    const writableEvents: Record<string, Function> = {};
+    const fakeWriteStream = {
+      on: vi.fn((event: string, cb: Function) => {
+        writableEvents[event] = cb;
+      }),
+    };
+    fsMock.createWriteStream.mockReturnValue(fakeWriteStream);
+
+    archiverInstanceMock.on.mockImplementation((_e: string, _cb: Function) => {});
+    archiverInstanceMock.pipe.mockReturnValue(undefined);
+    archiverInstanceMock.finalize.mockImplementation(() => {
+      if (writableEvents['close']) writableEvents['close']();
+    });
+    archiverMock.mockReturnValue(archiverInstanceMock);
+
+    fsMock.statSync.mockReturnValue({ size: 1024, birthtime: new Date('2026-04-06T12:00:00Z') });
+
+    await createBackup();
+
+    const globCall = archiverInstanceMock.glob.mock.calls.at(-1);
+    const ignore: string[] = globCall?.[1]?.ignore ?? [];
+    expect(ignore).toContain('backups/**');
+    expect(ignore).toContain('restore-*/**');
+  });
+
   it('BACKUP-036f — bundles .encryption_key when present and ENCRYPTION_KEY env is unset', async () => {
     const prevEnvKey = process.env.ENCRYPTION_KEY;
     delete process.env.ENCRYPTION_KEY;