diff --git a/src/audio/SDL_audio.c b/src/audio/SDL_audio.c
index d642016541..eb5f6456e2 100644
--- a/src/audio/SDL_audio.c
+++ b/src/audio/SDL_audio.c
@@ -739,6 +739,21 @@ SDL_AudioDevice *SDL_AddAudioDevice(bool recording, const char *name, const SDL_
     return device;
 }
 
+// you must hold the device lock when calling this!
+static void SetAudioDeviceZombieFunctions(SDL_AudioDevice *device)
+{
+    // Swap in "Zombie" versions of the usual platform interfaces, so the device will keep
+    // making progress until the app closes it. Otherwise, streams might continue to
+    // accumulate waste data that never drains, apps that depend on audio callbacks to
+    // progress will freeze, etc.
+    device->WaitDevice = ZombieWaitDevice;
+    device->GetDeviceBuf = ZombieGetDeviceBuf;
+    device->PlayDevice = ZombiePlayDevice;
+    device->WaitRecordingDevice = ZombieWaitDevice;
+    device->RecordDevice = ZombieRecordDevice;
+    device->FlushRecording = ZombieFlushRecording;
+}
+
 // Called when a device is removed from the system, or it fails unexpectedly, from any thread, possibly even the audio device's thread.
 static void SDLCALL SDL_AudioDeviceDisconnected_OnMainThread(void *userdata)
 {
@@ -760,18 +775,10 @@ static void SDLCALL SDL_AudioDeviceDisconnected_OnMainThread(void *userdata)
     const bool is_default_device = ((devid == current_audio.default_playback_device_id) || (devid == current_audio.default_recording_device_id));
     SDL_UnlockRWLock(current_audio.subsystem_rwlock);
 
-    const bool first_disconnect = SDL_CompareAndSwapAtomicInt(&device->zombie, 0, 1);
+    // zombie==2 means "we've handled the disconnect events". 1=="we marked this as dead from a random thread but haven't done anything else"  0==we think we're still alive.
+    const bool first_disconnect = SDL_CompareAndSwapAtomicInt(&device->zombie, 0, 2) || SDL_CompareAndSwapAtomicInt(&device->zombie, 1, 2);
     if (first_disconnect) {   // if already disconnected this device, don't do it twice.
-        // Swap in "Zombie" versions of the usual platform interfaces, so the device will keep
-        // making progress until the app closes it. Otherwise, streams might continue to
-        // accumulate waste data that never drains, apps that depend on audio callbacks to
-        // progress will freeze, etc.
-        device->WaitDevice = ZombieWaitDevice;
-        device->GetDeviceBuf = ZombieGetDeviceBuf;
-        device->PlayDevice = ZombiePlayDevice;
-        device->WaitRecordingDevice = ZombieWaitDevice;
-        device->RecordDevice = ZombieRecordDevice;
-        device->FlushRecording = ZombieFlushRecording;
+        SetAudioDeviceZombieFunctions(device);  // in case we beat the device thread to this.
 
         // on default devices, dump any logical devices that explicitly opened this device. Things that opened the system default can stay.
         // on non-default devices, dump everything.
@@ -822,12 +829,15 @@ static void SDLCALL SDL_AudioDeviceDisconnected_OnMainThread(void *userdata)
 
 void SDL_AudioDeviceDisconnected(SDL_AudioDevice *device)
 {
+    //SDL_Log("AUDIO DEVICE DISCONNECTED %p '%s'", device, device ? device->name : NULL);
+
     // lots of risk of various audio backends deadlocking because they're calling
     // this while holding a backend-specific lock, which causes problems when we
     // want to obtain the device lock while its audio thread is also waiting for
     // that lock to be released. So just queue the work on the main thread.
     if (device) {
         RefPhysicalAudioDevice(device);
+        SDL_CompareAndSwapAtomicInt(&device->zombie, 0, 1);  // note that we're (un)dead right now, if we haven't already, but leave the event notifications for the main thread.
         SDL_RunOnMainThread(SDL_AudioDeviceDisconnected_OnMainThread, device, false);
     }
 }
@@ -1183,6 +1193,11 @@ bool SDL_PlaybackAudioThreadIterate(SDL_AudioDevice *device)
         return false;  // we're done, shut it down.
     }
 
+    if (SDL_GetAtomicInt(&device->zombie) == 1) {
+        // we've been marked as (un)dead but not fully processed. Set up the zombie functions so we stop talking to the real backend.
+        SetAudioDeviceZombieFunctions(device);
+    }
+
     bool failed = false;
     int buffer_size = device->buffer_size;
     Uint8 *device_buffer = device->GetDeviceBuf(device, &buffer_size);
@@ -1349,6 +1364,11 @@ bool SDL_RecordingAudioThreadIterate(SDL_AudioDevice *device)
         return false;  // we're done, shut it down.
     }
 
+    if (SDL_GetAtomicInt(&device->zombie) == 1) {
+        // we've been marked as (un)dead but not fully processed. Set up the zombie functions so we stop talking to the real backend.
+        SetAudioDeviceZombieFunctions(device);
+    }
+
     bool failed = false;
 
     if (!device->logical_devices) {