diff --git a/Rsync/rsync.sh b/Rsync/rsync.sh
index 7cd9e30..1d447e9 100755
--- a/Rsync/rsync.sh
+++ b/Rsync/rsync.sh
@@ -371,10 +371,10 @@ RSYNC_OPTS+=(--stats)
 # Runs before the push so anything the remote has that we don't is preserved locally.
 # After this pass, local is the superset — the delete push in pass 2 is then safe.
 if [[ "$MERGE_RUN" == true ]]; then
-    echo "$ICON_SYNC  Merge pass 1 — pulling ${REMOTE_SERVER_NAME}-unique content to local..."
+    echo "$ICON_SYNC  Merge pass 1 — pulling ${REMOTE_SERVER_NAME}-unique content to local (capped at ${RSYNC_MAX_RUNTIME_HOURS}h)..."
     _pull_opts=(-av --ignore-existing --stats)
     [[ "$DRY_RUN" == true ]] && _pull_opts+=(--dry-run)
-    _pull_output=$(rsync "${_pull_opts[@]}" \
+    _pull_output=$(timeout "${RSYNC_MAX_RUNTIME_SECONDS}s" rsync "${_pull_opts[@]}" \
         -e "ssh -i $SSH_KEY -T -o Compression=no -o IPQoS=throughput" \
         "root@${REMOTE_SERVER}:${DIRECTORY}/" "${DIRECTORY}/" 2>&1)
     _pull_exit=$?
@@ -382,6 +382,12 @@ if [[ "$MERGE_RUN" == true ]]; then
         awk '/Total transferred file size:/{gsub(/,/,"",$NF); gsub(/[^0-9]/,"",$NF); print $NF+0}')
     if [[ "$_pull_exit" -eq 0 ]]; then
         echo "$ICON_DONE Merge pass 1 complete — ${_pull_bytes:-0} bytes pulled"
+    elif [[ "$_pull_exit" -eq 124 ]]; then
+        # Same cap as the main push — never let one direction of the merge run unbounded.
+        # Files already completed before the timeout stay pulled; next scheduled run
+        # picks up whatever's still remote-unique (no --partial here, so an in-flight
+        # file at the moment of the kill is discarded, not corrupted).
+        warn "Merge pass 1 exceeded ${RSYNC_MAX_RUNTIME_HOURS}h cap — continuing with push, will resume pull next scheduled run"
     else
         warn "Merge pass 1 failed (exit $_pull_exit) — continuing with push"
         echo "$_pull_output" | grep -iE "error|rsync:|permission denied" | while read -r _line; do