diff --git a/changelog/0.8.3/pull-1638 b/changelog/0.8.3/pull-1638
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d2697b3f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/0.8.3/pull-1638
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+Bugfix: Handle errors listing files in the backend
+
+A user reported in the forum that restic completes a backup although a
+concurrent `prune` operation was running. A few error messages were printed,
+but the backup was attempted and completed successfully. No error code was
+returned.
+
+This should not happen: The repository is exclusively locked during `prune`, so
+when `restic backup` is run in parallel, it should abort and return an error
+code instead.
+
+It was found that the bug was in the code introduced only recently, which
+retries a List() operation on the backend should that fail. It is now corrected.
+
+https://github.com/restic/restic/pull/1638
+https://forum.restic.net/t/restic-backup-returns-0-exit-code-when-already-locked/484
diff --git a/internal/backend/backend_retry.go b/internal/backend/backend_retry.go
index 6e00c086f..00274e43e 100644
--- a/internal/backend/backend_retry.go
+++ b/internal/backend/backend_retry.go
@@ -125,16 +125,39 @@ func (be *RetryBackend) Test(ctx context.Context, h restic.Handle) (exists bool,
 	return exists, err
 }
 
-// List runs fn for each file in the backend which has the type t.
+// List runs fn for each file in the backend which has the type t. When an
+// error is returned by the underlying backend, the request is retried. When fn
+// returns an error, the operation is aborted and the error is returned to the
+// caller.
 func (be *RetryBackend) List(ctx context.Context, t restic.FileType, fn func(restic.FileInfo) error) error {
-	listed := make(map[string]struct{})
-	return be.retry(ctx, fmt.Sprintf("List(%v)", t), func() error {
+	// create a new context that we can cancel when fn returns an error, so
+	// that listing is aborted
+	listCtx, cancel := context.WithCancel(ctx)
+	defer cancel()
+
+	listed := make(map[string]struct{}) // remember for which files we already ran fn
+	var innerErr error                  // remember when fn returned an error, so we can return that to the caller
+
+	err := be.retry(listCtx, fmt.Sprintf("List(%v)", t), func() error {
 		return be.Backend.List(ctx, t, func(fi restic.FileInfo) error {
 			if _, ok := listed[fi.Name]; ok {
 				return nil
 			}
 			listed[fi.Name] = struct{}{}
-			return fn(fi)
+
+			innerErr = fn(fi)
+			if innerErr != nil {
+				// if fn returned an error, listing is aborted, so we cancel the context
+				cancel()
+			}
+			return innerErr
 		})
 	})
+
+	// the error fn returned takes precedence
+	if innerErr != nil {
+		return innerErr
+	}
+
+	return err
 }
diff --git a/internal/backend/backend_retry_test.go b/internal/backend/backend_retry_test.go
index 6abd4cba2..832547c77 100644
--- a/internal/backend/backend_retry_test.go
+++ b/internal/backend/backend_retry_test.go
@@ -124,6 +124,104 @@ func TestBackendListRetry(t *testing.T) {
 	test.Equals(t, []string{ID1, ID2}, listed) // assert no duplicate files
 }
 
+func TestBackendListRetryErrorFn(t *testing.T) {
+	var names = []string{"id1", "id2", "foo", "bar"}
+
+	be := &mock.Backend{
+		ListFn: func(ctx context.Context, tpe restic.FileType, fn func(restic.FileInfo) error) error {
+			t.Logf("List called for %v", tpe)
+			for _, name := range names {
+				err := fn(restic.FileInfo{Name: name})
+				if err != nil {
+					return err
+				}
+			}
+
+			return nil
+		},
+	}
+
+	retryBackend := RetryBackend{
+		Backend: be,
+	}
+
+	var ErrTest = errors.New("test error")
+
+	var listed []string
+	run := 0
+	err := retryBackend.List(context.TODO(), restic.DataFile, func(fi restic.FileInfo) error {
+		t.Logf("fn called for %v", fi.Name)
+		run++
+		// return an error for the third item in the list
+		if run == 3 {
+			t.Log("returning an error")
+			return ErrTest
+		}
+		listed = append(listed, fi.Name)
+		return nil
+	})
+
+	if err != ErrTest {
+		t.Fatalf("wrong error returned, want %v, got %v", ErrTest, err)
+	}
+
+	// processing should stop after the error was returned, so run should be 3
+	if run != 3 {
+		t.Fatalf("function was called %d times, wanted %v", run, 3)
+	}
+
+	test.Equals(t, []string{"id1", "id2"}, listed)
+}
+
+func TestBackendListRetryErrorBackend(t *testing.T) {
+	var names = []string{"id1", "id2", "foo", "bar"}
+
+	var ErrBackendTest = errors.New("test error")
+
+	retries := 0
+	be := &mock.Backend{
+		ListFn: func(ctx context.Context, tpe restic.FileType, fn func(restic.FileInfo) error) error {
+			t.Logf("List called for %v, retries %v", tpe, retries)
+			retries++
+			for i, name := range names {
+				if i == 2 {
+					return ErrBackendTest
+				}
+
+				err := fn(restic.FileInfo{Name: name})
+				if err != nil {
+					return err
+				}
+			}
+
+			return nil
+		},
+	}
+
+	const maxRetries = 2
+	retryBackend := RetryBackend{
+		MaxTries: maxRetries,
+		Backend:  be,
+	}
+
+	var listed []string
+	err := retryBackend.List(context.TODO(), restic.DataFile, func(fi restic.FileInfo) error {
+		t.Logf("fn called for %v", fi.Name)
+		listed = append(listed, fi.Name)
+		return nil
+	})
+
+	if err != ErrBackendTest {
+		t.Fatalf("wrong error returned, want %v, got %v", ErrBackendTest, err)
+	}
+
+	if retries != maxRetries+1 {
+		t.Fatalf("List was called %d times, wanted %v", retries, maxRetries+1)
+	}
+
+	test.Equals(t, names[:2], listed)
+}
+
 // failingReader returns an error after reading limit number of bytes
 type failingReader struct {
 	data  []byte
diff --git a/internal/restic/lock.go b/internal/restic/lock.go
index e5acfb4fa..d3e5edc57 100644
--- a/internal/restic/lock.go
+++ b/internal/restic/lock.go
@@ -44,7 +44,11 @@ type ErrAlreadyLocked struct {
 }
 
 func (e ErrAlreadyLocked) Error() string {
-	return fmt.Sprintf("repository is already locked by %v", e.otherLock)
+	s := ""
+	if e.otherLock.Exclusive {
+		s = "exclusively "
+	}
+	return fmt.Sprintf("repository is already locked %sby %v", s, e.otherLock)
 }
 
 // IsAlreadyLocked returns true iff err is an instance of ErrAlreadyLocked.