diff --git a/wal/failover_writer.go b/wal/failover_writer.go
index 14067d9626..19ccb712f0 100644
--- a/wal/failover_writer.go
+++ b/wal/failover_writer.go
@@ -773,19 +773,23 @@ func (ww *failoverWriter) closeInternal() (logicalOffset int64, err error) {
 	lastRecordIndex := record.PendingSyncIndex{Index: ww.q.getLastIndex()}
 	ww.mu.Lock()
 	defer ww.mu.Unlock()
+	numWriters := ww.mu.nextWriterIndex
 	// Every iteration starts and ends with the mutex held.
 	//
-	// Invariant: ww.mu.nextWriterIndex >= 1.
+	// Invariant: numWriters >= 1.
 	//
 	// We will loop until we have closed the lastWriter (and use
 	// lastWriter.err). We also need to call close on all LogWriters
 	// that will not close themselves, i.e., those that have already been
 	// created and installed in failoverWriter.writers (this set may change
 	// while failoverWriter.Close runs).
-	for !lastWriter.closed {
-		numWriters := ww.mu.nextWriterIndex
+	for !lastWriter.closed || numWriters > lastWriter.index+1 {
 		if numWriters > closeCalledCount {
-			// INVARIANT: numWriters > closeCalledCount.
+			// lastWriter.index may or may not have advanced. If it has advanced, we
+			// need to reinitialize lastWriterState. If it hasn't advanced, and
+			// numWriters > closeCalledCount, we know that we haven't called close
+			// on it, so nothing in lastWriterState needs to be retained. For
+			// simplicity, we overwrite in both cases.
 			lastWriter = lastWriterState{
 				index: numWriters - 1,
 			}
@@ -857,7 +861,34 @@ func (ww *failoverWriter) closeInternal() (logicalOffset int64, err error) {
 		if !lastWriter.closed {
 			// Either waiting for creation of last writer or waiting for the close
 			// to finish, or something else to become the last writer.
+			//
+			// It is possible that what we think of as the last writer (lastWriter)
+			// closes itself while ww.mu is no longer held here, and a new LogWriter
+			// is created too. All the records are synced, but the real last writer
+			// may still be writing some records. Specifically, consider the
+			// following sequence while this wait does not hold the mutex:
+			//
+			// - recordQueue has an entry, with index 50, that does not require a
+			//   sync.
+			// - Last writer created at index 10 and entry 50 is handed to it.
+			// - lastWriter.index is still 9 and it closes itself and signals this
+			//   cond. It has written entry 50 and synced (since close syncs).
+			// - The wait completes.
+			//
+			// Now the writer at index 10 will never be closed and will never sync.
+			// A crash can cause some part of what it writes to be lost. Note that
+			// there is no data loss, but there are some unfortunate consequences:
+			//
+			// - We never closed a file descriptor.
+			// - virtualWALReader.NextRecord can return an error on finding a
+			//   malformed chunk in the last writer (at index 10) instead of
+			//   swallowing the error. This can cause DB.Open to fail.
+			//
+			// To avoid this, we grab the latest value of numWriters on reacquiring
+			// the mutex, and will continue looping until the writer at index 10 is
+			// closed (or writer at index 11 is created).
 			ww.mu.cond.Wait()
+			numWriters = ww.mu.nextWriterIndex
 		}
 	}
 	if ww.mu.writers[lastWriter.index].w != nil {
@@ -867,7 +898,10 @@ func (ww *failoverWriter) closeInternal() (logicalOffset int64, err error) {
 	err = lastWriter.err
 	ww.mu.metrics = lastWriter.metrics
 	ww.mu.closed = true
-	_, _ = ww.q.popAll(err)
+	n, m := ww.q.popAll(err)
+	if err == nil && (n > 0 || m > 0) {
+		panic(errors.AssertionFailedf("no error but recordQueue had %d records and %d syncs", n, m))
+	}
 	return logicalOffset, err
 }