diff --git a/src/llama-memory-recurrent.cpp b/src/llama-memory-recurrent.cpp
index 276e1697d466c..812bf2530491a 100644
--- a/src/llama-memory-recurrent.cpp
+++ b/src/llama-memory-recurrent.cpp
@@ -151,7 +151,8 @@ bool llama_memory_recurrent::seq_rm(llama_seq_id seq_id, llama_pos p0, llama_pos
         p1 = std::numeric_limits<llama_pos>::max();
     }
 
-    // models like Mamba or RWKV can't have a state partially erased
+    // models like Mamba or RWKV can't have a state partially erased at the end
+    // of the sequence because their state isn't preserved for previous tokens
     if (seq_id >= (int64_t) size) {
         // could be fatal
         return false;
@@ -160,8 +161,8 @@ bool llama_memory_recurrent::seq_rm(llama_seq_id seq_id, llama_pos p0, llama_pos
         int32_t & tail_id = cells[seq_id].tail;
         if (tail_id >= 0) {
             const auto & cell = cells[tail_id];
-            // partial intersection is invalid
-            if ((0 < p0 && p0 < cell.pos) || (0 < p1 && p1 <= cell.pos)) {
+            // partial intersection is invalid if it includes the final pos
+            if (0 < p0 && p0 <= cell.pos && p1 > cell.pos) {
                 //printf("[DEBUG] inside `llama_memory_recurrent::seq_rm`: partial intersection is invalid, so returning false\n");
                 return false;
             }
diff --git a/tools/main/main.cpp b/tools/main/main.cpp
index 498e00e3a5e58..33e8862335793 100644
--- a/tools/main/main.cpp
+++ b/tools/main/main.cpp
@@ -354,7 +354,11 @@ int main(int argc, char ** argv) {
         }
 
         // remove any "future" tokens that we might have inherited from the previous session
-        llama_memory_seq_rm(mem, -1, n_matching_session_tokens, -1);
+        if (!llama_memory_seq_rm(mem, -1, n_matching_session_tokens, -1)) {
+            LOG_INF("%s: unable to resuse common prefix\n", __func__);
+            n_matching_session_tokens = 0;
+            llama_memory_seq_rm(mem, -1, -1, -1);
+        }
     }
 
     LOG_DBG("recalculate the cached logits (check): embd_inp.size() %zu, n_matching_session_tokens %zu, embd_inp.size() %zu, session_tokens.size() %zu\n",