diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7ae703d..e558cdd 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 ## [Unreleased]
 ### Fixed
 * Drop support for Ruby 3.1 and 3.2, Rails 7.0
+* Capistrano: deployment should continue even if cleanup cannot delete files
 
 ## 7.3.6 / 2026-01-13
 ### Added
diff --git a/lib/ndr_dev_support/capistrano/restart.rb b/lib/ndr_dev_support/capistrano/restart.rb
index 5ee2c08..223c2c0 100644
--- a/lib/ndr_dev_support/capistrano/restart.rb
+++ b/lib/ndr_dev_support/capistrano/restart.rb
@@ -5,5 +5,15 @@
       # The tmp/ directory should be shared, so this affects all prior deployments
       run "touch #{shared_path}/tmp/restart.txt"
     end
+
+    desc <<~DESC
+      Clean up old releases. Overrides the default deploy:cleanup but without blocking \
+      subsequent tasks if cleanup fails (e.g. because of locked files or permissions issues).
+    DESC
+    task :cleanup, except: { no_release: true } do
+      count = fetch(:keep_releases, 5).to_i
+      try_sudo "ls -1dt #{releases_path}/* | tail -n +#{count + 1} | #{try_sudo} xargs -r rm -rf " \
+               "|| echo 'cap deploy:cleanup failed - continuing, but check permissions.' >&2"
+    end
   end
 end