diff --git a/.woodpecker/build.yaml b/.woodpecker/build.yaml
index 1864a7b..e8d85d7 100644
--- a/.woodpecker/build.yaml
+++ b/.woodpecker/build.yaml
@@ -29,6 +29,9 @@ steps:
       # rscript_startup arg: required to pass down global option to future workers https://github.com/HenrikBengtsson/future/issues/134#issuecomment-2245666169
       - git clone https://pat-s:$$git_ro_token@git.devxy.io/devxy/arm64-r-binaries.git && cd arm64-r-binaries
       - R -q -e 'install.packages(".", repos = NULL, quiet = FALSE); packageVersion("rBinaries")'
+      # manually install some packages into the cache so that some builds don't fail
+      # Hmisc -> ABCanalysis
+      - R -q -e 'pak::pak("Hmisc")'
       - R -q -e 'options(crayon.enabled = TRUE, Ncpus = 4, future.globals.onReference = "error"); pkgs = tools::CRAN_package_db()[[1]][1:500]; library(rBinaries); future::plan("multisession", workers = 4, rscript_startup = quote(options(crayon.enabled = TRUE))); foo = lapply(pkgs, function(x) build_binary_package(x, build_for_minor=FALSE, debug = FALSE, force = TRUE))'
     backend_options:
       kubernetes:
diff --git a/R/build_binaries.R b/R/build_binaries.R
index 419d7bb..46fe92e 100644
--- a/R/build_binaries.R
+++ b/R/build_binaries.R
@@ -88,26 +88,29 @@ build_binary_package <- function(package_name, tag = NULL, codename = NULL,
       tryCatch(
         {
           p()
-          store_build_metadata(x, y, platform, error_occurred = FALSE, force = force)
           dump <- build_single_tag(x, y, dir_out_bin, local_clone_dir, platform = platform, debug = debug)
+          store_build_metadata(x, y, platform, error_occurred = FALSE, force = force)
 
           con <- DBI::dbConnect(RPostgres::Postgres(),
             dbname = "build_metadata", host = "postgres-arm-binaries-r.devxy.io",
             port = 15432, user = "arm_binaries", password = Sys.getenv("PGPASS")
           )
           # here we check if build_duration is empty and take this as an indicator that the build failed. I.e. we set error_occurred = TRUE
-          val <- dbGetQuery(con, sprintf("SELECT build_duration FROM single_builds WHERE package_name = '%s' and tag = '%s'", x, y))
-          if (is.na(val)) {
-            dbExecute(con, sprintf("UPDATE single_builds SET error_occurred = TRUE WHERE package_name = '%s' and tag = '%s'", x, y))
-          }
+          # val <- dbGetQuery(con, sprintf("SELECT build_duration FROM single_builds WHERE package_name = '%s' and tag = '%s'", x, y))
+          # if (is.na(val)) {
+          #   dbExecute(con, sprintf("UPDATE single_builds SET error_occurred = TRUE WHERE package_name = '%s' and tag = '%s'", x, y))
+          # }
           dbDisconnect(con)
         },
         error = function(e) {
           message(sprintf("Error in processing package %s with tag %s: %s", x, y, e))
+          # print(e)
+          # str(e)
           local_clone_dir_single <- sprintf("%s/%s_%s", local_clone_dir, x, y)
           unlink(local_clone_dir_single, force = TRUE, recursive = TRUE)
           # NB: this does not always work, which is why we are using the lack of build_duration as a secondary factor in store_metadata()
-          store_build_metadata(x, y, platform, error_occurred = TRUE, force = TRUE, error = e)
+          # error <- paste("Call:", deparse(conditionCall(e)), "\nMessage:", conditionMessage(e), sep = " ")
+          store_build_metadata(x, y, platform, error_occurred = TRUE, force = TRUE, error = e$stderr)
         }
       )
     }, package_name, tag, future.seed = TRUE)
diff --git a/R/metadata-build.R b/R/metadata-build.R
index 95af938..3da2e31 100644
--- a/R/metadata-build.R
+++ b/R/metadata-build.R
@@ -13,12 +13,16 @@ store_build_metadata <- function(
     package_name, "' AND tag = '", tag, "'"
   ))
 
+  if (is.null(error)) {
+    error <- NA
+  }
+
   if (nrow(existing_entries) >= 1 && !force) {
     cli::cli_alert("{.fun store_build_metadata}: Build metadata for {.field {.pkg package_name}} {.field {tag}} already exists.")
   } else if (nrow(existing_entries) >= 1 && force) {
     cli::cli_alert_info("{.fun store_build_metadata}: Force overwriting build metadata for {.pkg {package_name}} {.field {tag}} because {.code force = TRUE} was set.")
 
-    DBI::dbExecute(con, sprintf("UPDATE single_builds SET build_timestamp = '%s', error_occurred = %s, error = '%s' WHERE package_name = '%s' and tag = '%s'", format(Sys.time(), "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"), error_occurred, error, package_name, tag))
+    DBI::dbExecute(con, "UPDATE single_builds SET build_timestamp = $1, error_occurred = $2, error = $3 WHERE package_name = $4 and tag = $5", params = list(format(Sys.time(), "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"), error_occurred, error, package_name, tag))
   } else if (nrow(existing_entries) == 0) {
     cli::cli_alert("{.fun store_build_metadata}: Storing build metadata for {.pkg {package_name}} {.field {tag}}.")
     # Create a data frame with the metadata