diff --git a/nomad/csi_endpoint.go b/nomad/csi_endpoint.go
index a8695982be2f..36b2c9bf7aa5 100644
--- a/nomad/csi_endpoint.go
+++ b/nomad/csi_endpoint.go
@@ -647,6 +647,16 @@ func (v *CSIVolume) Unpublish(args *structs.CSIVolumeUnpublishRequest, reply *st
 
 	claim := args.Claim
 
+	// we need to checkpoint when we first get the claim to ensure we've set the
+	// initial "past claim" state, otherwise a client that unpublishes (skipping
+	// the node unpublish b/c it's done that work) fail to get written if the
+	// controller unpublish fails.
+	vol = vol.Copy()
+	err = v.checkpointClaim(vol, claim)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
 	// previous checkpoints may have set the past claim state already.
 	// in practice we should never see CSIVolumeClaimStateControllerDetached
 	// but having an option for the state makes it easy to add a checkpoint
@@ -693,14 +703,18 @@ RELEASE_CLAIM:
 func (v *CSIVolume) nodeUnpublishVolume(vol *structs.CSIVolume, claim *structs.CSIVolumeClaim) error {
 	v.logger.Trace("node unpublish", "vol", vol.ID)
 
-	store := v.srv.fsm.State()
+	// We need a new snapshot after each checkpoint
+	snap, err := v.srv.fsm.State().Snapshot()
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
 
 	// If the node has been GC'd or is down, we can't send it a node
 	// unpublish. We need to assume the node has unpublished at its
 	// end. If it hasn't, any controller unpublish will potentially
 	// hang or error and need to be retried.
 	if claim.NodeID != "" {
-		node, err := store.NodeByID(memdb.NewWatchSet(), claim.NodeID)
+		node, err := snap.NodeByID(memdb.NewWatchSet(), claim.NodeID)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
 		}
@@ -723,7 +737,7 @@ func (v *CSIVolume) nodeUnpublishVolume(vol *structs.CSIVolume, claim *structs.C
 	// The RPC sent from the 'nomad node detach' command or GC won't have an
 	// allocation ID set so we try to unpublish every terminal or invalid
 	// alloc on the node, all of which will be in PastClaims after denormalizing
-	vol, err := store.CSIVolumeDenormalize(memdb.NewWatchSet(), vol)
+	vol, err = snap.CSIVolumeDenormalize(memdb.NewWatchSet(), vol)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
@@ -793,10 +807,15 @@ func (v *CSIVolume) controllerUnpublishVolume(vol *structs.CSIVolume, claim *str
 		return nil
 	}
 
-	state := v.srv.fsm.State()
+	// We need a new snapshot after each checkpoint
+	snap, err := v.srv.fsm.State().Snapshot()
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
 	ws := memdb.NewWatchSet()
 
-	plugin, err := state.CSIPluginByID(ws, vol.PluginID)
+	plugin, err := snap.CSIPluginByID(ws, vol.PluginID)
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("could not query plugin: %v", err)
 	} else if plugin == nil {
@@ -808,7 +827,7 @@ func (v *CSIVolume) controllerUnpublishVolume(vol *structs.CSIVolume, claim *str
 		return nil
 	}
 
-	vol, err = state.CSIVolumeDenormalize(ws, vol)
+	vol, err = snap.CSIVolumeDenormalize(ws, vol)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
diff --git a/nomad/csi_endpoint_test.go b/nomad/csi_endpoint_test.go
index 9f24fc12c3b4..4a4decf86857 100644
--- a/nomad/csi_endpoint_test.go
+++ b/nomad/csi_endpoint_test.go
@@ -575,7 +575,7 @@ func TestCSIVolumeEndpoint_Unpublish(t *testing.T) {
 			// setup: create an alloc that will claim our volume
 			alloc := mock.BatchAlloc()
 			alloc.NodeID = tc.nodeID
-			alloc.ClientStatus = structs.AllocClientStatusFailed
+			alloc.ClientStatus = structs.AllocClientStatusRunning
 
 			otherAlloc := mock.BatchAlloc()
 			otherAlloc.NodeID = tc.otherNodeID
@@ -585,7 +585,7 @@ func TestCSIVolumeEndpoint_Unpublish(t *testing.T) {
 			must.NoError(t, state.UpsertAllocs(structs.MsgTypeTestSetup, index,
 				[]*structs.Allocation{alloc, otherAlloc}))
 
-			// setup: claim the volume for our alloc
+			// setup: claim the volume for our to-be-failed alloc
 			claim := &structs.CSIVolumeClaim{
 				AllocationID:   alloc.ID,
 				NodeID:         tc.nodeID,
@@ -623,10 +623,19 @@ func TestCSIVolumeEndpoint_Unpublish(t *testing.T) {
 				},
 			}
 
+			alloc = alloc.Copy()
+			alloc.ClientStatus = structs.AllocClientStatusFailed
+			index++
+			must.NoError(t, state.UpsertAllocs(structs.MsgTypeTestSetup, index,
+				[]*structs.Allocation{alloc}))
+
 			err = msgpackrpc.CallWithCodec(codec, "CSIVolume.Unpublish", req,
 				&structs.CSIVolumeUnpublishResponse{})
 
-			vol, volErr := state.CSIVolumeByID(nil, ns, volID)
+			snap, snapErr := state.Snapshot()
+			must.NoError(t, snapErr)
+
+			vol, volErr := snap.CSIVolumeByID(nil, ns, volID)
 			must.NoError(t, volErr)
 			must.NotNil(t, vol)