diff --git a/src/otaclient/app/configs.py b/src/otaclient/app/configs.py
index 074ff80a8..9a76ab8b7 100644
--- a/src/otaclient/app/configs.py
+++ b/src/otaclient/app/configs.py
@@ -134,6 +134,7 @@ class BaseConfig(_InternalSettings):
     # now only REBUILD mode is available
     STANDBY_CREATION_MODE = CreateStandbyMechanism.REBUILD
     MAX_CONCURRENT_PROCESS_FILE_TASKS = 512
+    MAX_PROCESS_FILE_THREAD = 6
     CREATE_STANDBY_RETRY_MAX = 1024
     CREATE_STANDBY_BACKOFF_FACTOR = 1
     CREATE_STANDBY_BACKOFF_MAX = 6
diff --git a/src/otaclient/app/create_standby/common.py b/src/otaclient/app/create_standby/common.py
index eb3df40a2..fabc6ff8e 100644
--- a/src/otaclient/app/create_standby/common.py
+++ b/src/otaclient/app/create_standby/common.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 import random
 import threading
 import time
-from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
+from concurrent.futures import Future, ThreadPoolExecutor
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 from hashlib import sha256
 from pathlib import Path
@@ -325,13 +325,23 @@ def _process_delta_src(self):
 
         # ------ create the threadpool executor ------ #
         thread_local = threading.local()
+        max_pending_tasks = threading.Semaphore(cfg.MAX_CONCURRENT_PROCESS_FILE_TASKS)
 
         def _initializer():
             thread_local.buffer = buffer = bytearray(cfg.CHUNK_SIZE)
             thread_local.view = memoryview(buffer)
 
+        def _task_done_callback(fut: Future[Any]):
+            max_pending_tasks.release()  # always release se first
+            if exc := fut.exception():
+                logger.warning(
+                    f"detect error during file preparing, still continue: {exc!r}"
+                )
+
         pool = ThreadPoolExecutor(
-            thread_name_prefix="scan_slot", initializer=_initializer
+            max_workers=cfg.MAX_PROCESS_FILE_THREAD,
+            thread_name_prefix="scan_slot",
+            initializer=_initializer,
         )
 
         # scan old slot and generate delta based on path,
@@ -417,11 +427,12 @@ def _initializer():
                     self._rm.append(str(canonical_fpath))
                     continue
 
+                max_pending_tasks.acquire()
                 pool.submit(
                     self._prepare_local_copy_from_active_slot,
                     delta_src_fpath,
                     thread_local=thread_local,
-                )
+                ).add_done_callback(_task_done_callback)
 
         # wait for all files being processed
         pool.shutdown(wait=True)