diff --git a/addon/facebook/facebook.php b/addon/facebook/facebook.php
index b1ba6342ad..dc1aa02dd9 100644
--- a/addon/facebook/facebook.php
+++ b/addon/facebook/facebook.php
@@ -725,8 +725,10 @@ function fb_consume_stream($uid,$j,$wall = false) {
 
 			// don't store post if we don't have a contact
 
-			if(! x($datarray,'contact-id'))
+			if(! x($datarray,'contact-id')) {
+				logger('no contact: post ignored');
 				continue; 
+			}
 
 			$datarray['verb'] = ACTIVITY_POST;						
 			if($wall) {
@@ -759,8 +761,10 @@ function fb_consume_stream($uid,$j,$wall = false) {
 				intval($top_item),
 				intval($uid)
 			);			
-			if(count($r))
+			if(count($r)) {
 				$orig_post = $r[0];
+				logger('fb: new top level item posted');
+			}
 		}
 
 		if(isset($entry->likes) && isset($entry->likes->data))
diff --git a/include/items.php b/include/items.php
index cbf5e4d24d..fbcac30cdf 100644
--- a/include/items.php
+++ b/include/items.php
@@ -742,6 +742,15 @@ function item_store($arr,$force_parent = false) {
 		$arr['uri'],           // already dbesc'd
 		intval($arr['uid'])
 	);
+	if(! count($r)) {
+		// This is not good, but perhaps we encountered a rare race/cache condition, so back off and try again. 
+		sleep(3);
+		$r = q("SELECT `id` FROM `item` WHERE `uri` = '%s' AND `uid` = %d LIMIT 1",
+			$arr['uri'],           // already dbesc'd
+			intval($arr['uid'])
+		);
+	}
+
 	if(count($r)) {
 		$current_post = $r[0]['id'];
 		logger('item_store: created item ' . $current_post);