diff --git a/roles/taskotron/resultsdb-backend/tasks/main.yml b/roles/taskotron/resultsdb-backend/tasks/main.yml
index 1aa4a81401..c3833476f2 100644
--- a/roles/taskotron/resultsdb-backend/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/roles/taskotron/resultsdb-backend/tasks/main.yml
@@ -47,5 +47,8 @@
   notify:
     - restart httpd
 
-- name: initialize resultsdb database
-  shell: PROD='true' resultsdb init_db && touch /etc/resultsdb/db-is-init creates=/etc/resultsdb-is-init 
+# this command will clear the exising database and it's now being run every time, regardless of whether
+# /etc/resultsdb-is-init exists or not. We've already lost a lot of data, so commenting this command out
+# while we figure out how to handle the problem
+#- name: initialize resultsdb database
+#  shell: PROD='true' resultsdb init_db && touch /etc/resultsdb/db-is-init creates=/etc/resultsdb-is-init