diff --git a/pkg/ccl/backupccl/backup_job.go b/pkg/ccl/backupccl/backup_job.go
index bbf8af881590..e836f3f94756 100644
--- a/pkg/ccl/backupccl/backup_job.go
+++ b/pkg/ccl/backupccl/backup_job.go
@@ -203,15 +203,22 @@ func backup(
 	var lastCheckpoint time.Time
 
 	var ranges []roachpb.RangeDescriptor
-	if err := db.Txn(ctx, func(ctx context.Context, txn *kv.Txn) error {
-		var err error
-		// TODO(benesch): limit the range descriptors we fetch to the ranges that
-		// are actually relevant in the backup to speed up small backups on large
-		// clusters.
-		ranges, err = allRangeDescriptors(ctx, txn)
-		return err
-	}); err != nil {
-		return RowCount{}, err
+
+	// TODO(dt): we should really get a RangeDescriptor iterator and do this the
+	// right way, just iterate the spans we need, in a tenant or not. For now
+	// though tenants aren't allowed to just go read all ranges so we'll skip this
+	// and let distsender just split our ExportRequest for us.
+	if execCtx.ExecCfg().Codec.ForSystemTenant() {
+		if err := db.Txn(ctx, func(ctx context.Context, txn *kv.Txn) error {
+			var err error
+			// TODO(benesch): limit the range descriptors we fetch to the ranges that
+			// are actually relevant in the backup to speed up small backups on large
+			// clusters.
+			ranges, err = allRangeDescriptors(ctx, txn)
+			return err
+		}); err != nil {
+			return RowCount{}, err
+		}
 	}
 
 	var completedSpans, completedIntroducedSpans []roachpb.Span
@@ -499,7 +506,7 @@ func (b *backupResumer) Resume(
 
 	numClusterNodes, err := clusterNodeCount(p.ExecCfg().Gossip)
 	if err != nil {
-		if !build.IsRelease() {
+		if !build.IsRelease() && p.ExecCfg().Codec.ForSystemTenant() {
 			return err
 		}
 		log.Warningf(ctx, "unable to determine cluster node count: %v", err)
diff --git a/pkg/ccl/backupccl/backup_test.go b/pkg/ccl/backupccl/backup_test.go
index 66e4765f9d54..d690c7466793 100644
--- a/pkg/ccl/backupccl/backup_test.go
+++ b/pkg/ccl/backupccl/backup_test.go
@@ -6124,6 +6124,11 @@ func TestBackupRestoreTenant(t *testing.T) {
 	systemDB.Exec(t, `BACKUP TENANT 11 TO 'nodelocal://1/t11'`)
 	systemDB.Exec(t, `BACKUP TENANT 20 TO 'nodelocal://1/t20'`)
 
+	t.Run("inside-tenant", func(t *testing.T) {
+		skip.WithIssue(t, 57317)
+		tenant10.Exec(t, `BACKUP DATABASE foo TO 'userfile://defaultdb.myfililes/test'`)
+	})
+
 	t.Run("non-existent", func(t *testing.T) {
 		systemDB.ExpectErr(t, "tenant 123 does not exist", `BACKUP TENANT 123 TO 'nodelocal://1/t1'`)
 		systemDB.ExpectErr(t, "tenant 21 does not exist", `BACKUP TENANT 21 TO 'nodelocal://1/t20'`)
@@ -7087,7 +7092,7 @@ schema_name`
 	sqlDBRestore.CheckQueryResults(t, checkSchemasQuery,
 		[][]string{{"pg_temp_0_0"}, {"pg_temp_0_1"}, {"pg_temp_0_2"}, {"pg_temp_0_3"}})
 
-	checkTempTablesQuery := `SELECT schema_name, 
+	checkTempTablesQuery := `SELECT schema_name,
 table_name FROM [SHOW TABLES] ORDER BY schema_name, table_name`
 	sqlDBRestore.CheckQueryResults(t, checkTempTablesQuery, [][]string{{"pg_temp_0_0", "t"},
 		{"pg_temp_0_1", "t"}, {"pg_temp_0_2", "t"}, {"pg_temp_0_3", "t"}})