diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 2384f4dc52c..6f2972c05c9 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,5 +5,6 @@
 * [ENHANCEMENT] CI checks for vendored dependencies using `make vendor-check`. Update CONTRIBUTING.md to reflect the same before checking in files in a PR. [#274](https://github.com/grafana/tempo/pull/274)
 * [ENHANCEMENT] Add warnings for suspect configs. [#294](https://github.com/grafana/tempo/pull/294)
 * [ENHANCEMENT] Add command line flags for s3 credentials. [#308](https://github.com/grafana/tempo/pull/308)
+* [BUGFIX] S3 multi-part upload errors [#306](https://github.com/grafana/tempo/pull/325)
 * [BUGFIX] Increase Prometheus `notfound` metric on tempo-vulture. [#301](https://github.com/grafana/tempo/pull/301)
 * [BUGFIX] Return 404 if searching for a tenant id that does not exist in the backend. [#321](https://github.com/grafana/tempo/pull/321)
diff --git a/cmd/tempo/app/app.go b/cmd/tempo/app/app.go
index 66eff67925a..fe0de180cba 100644
--- a/cmd/tempo/app/app.go
+++ b/cmd/tempo/app/app.go
@@ -94,6 +94,11 @@ func (c *Config) CheckConfig() {
 		level.Warn(util.Logger).Log("msg", "compactor.compaction.compacted_block_timeout < storage.trace.blocklist_poll",
 			"explan", "Queriers and Compactors may attempt to read a block that no longer exists")
 	}
+
+	if c.StorageConfig.Trace.Backend == "s3" && c.Compactor.Compactor.FlushSizeBytes < 5242880 {
+		level.Warn(util.Logger).Log("msg", "c.Compactor.Compactor.FlushSizeBytes < 5242880",
+			"explan", "Compaction flush size should be 5MB or higher for S3 backend")
+	}
 }
 
 // App is the root datastructure.
diff --git a/docs/tempo/website/configuration/_index.md b/docs/tempo/website/configuration/_index.md
index 0a93acfa1d2..3379d230642 100644
--- a/docs/tempo/website/configuration/_index.md
+++ b/docs/tempo/website/configuration/_index.md
@@ -41,12 +41,17 @@ ingester:
 ```
 
 ### [Compactor](https://github.com/grafana/tempo/blob/master/modules/compactor/config.go)
-Compactors stream blocks from the storage backend, combine them and write them back.
+Compactors stream blocks from the storage backend, combine them and write them back.  Values shown below are the defaults.
 
 ```
 compactor:
     compaction:
-        block_retention: 336h       # duration to keep blocks
+        block_retention: 336h               # duration to keep blocks
+        compacted_block_retention: 1h       # duration to keep blocks that have been compacted elsewhere
+        compaction_window: 1h               # blocks in this time window will be compacted together
+        chunk_size_bytes: 10485760          # amount of data to buffer from input blocks
+        flush_size_bytes: 31457280          # flush data to backend when buffer is this large
+        max_compaction_objects: 1000000     # maximum traces in a compacted block
     ring:
         kvstore:
             store: memberlist       # in a high volume environment multiple compactors need to work together to keep up with incoming blocks.
diff --git a/example/docker-compose/etc/tempo-s3-minio.yaml b/example/docker-compose/etc/tempo-s3-minio.yaml
index ab19042c19f..685fa1e21d0 100644
--- a/example/docker-compose/etc/tempo-s3-minio.yaml
+++ b/example/docker-compose/etc/tempo-s3-minio.yaml
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ compactor:
     max_compaction_objects: 1000000    # maximum size of compacted blocks
     block_retention: 1h
     compacted_block_retention: 10m
+    flush_size_bytes: 5242880
 
 storage:
   trace:
diff --git a/modules/compactor/config.go b/modules/compactor/config.go
index b74c70197db..63a845f5bfe 100644
--- a/modules/compactor/config.go
+++ b/modules/compactor/config.go
@@ -17,10 +17,11 @@ type Config struct {
 	OverrideRingKey string                      `yaml:"override_ring_key"`
 }
 
-// RegisterFlags registers the flags.
+// RegisterFlagsAndApplyDefaults registers the flags.
 func (cfg *Config) RegisterFlagsAndApplyDefaults(prefix string, f *flag.FlagSet) {
 	cfg.Compactor = tempodb.CompactorConfig{
-		ChunkSizeBytes:          10485760, // 10 MiB
+		ChunkSizeBytes:          10 * 1024 * 1024, // 10 MiB
+		FlushSizeBytes:          30 * 1024 * 1024, // 30 MiB
 		CompactedBlockRetention: time.Hour,
 	}
 
diff --git a/tempodb/compactor.go b/tempodb/compactor.go
index 9d112620a67..415883a55f0 100644
--- a/tempodb/compactor.go
+++ b/tempodb/compactor.go
@@ -38,7 +38,6 @@ const (
 	inputBlocks  = 2
 	outputBlocks = 1
 
-	recordsPerBatch = 1000
 	compactionCycle = 30 * time.Second
 )
 
@@ -182,7 +181,7 @@ func (rw *readerWriter) compact(blockMetas []*encoding.BlockMeta, tenantID strin
 		lowestBookmark.clear()
 
 		// write partial block
-		if currentBlock.Length()%recordsPerBatch == 0 {
+		if currentBlock.CurrentBufferLength() >= int(rw.compactorCfg.FlushSizeBytes) {
 			tracker, err = appendBlock(rw, tracker, currentBlock)
 			if err != nil {
 				return errors.Wrap(err, "error writing partial block")
diff --git a/tempodb/config.go b/tempodb/config.go
index ca425104bae..d561de45016 100644
--- a/tempodb/config.go
+++ b/tempodb/config.go
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ type Config struct {
 
 type CompactorConfig struct {
 	ChunkSizeBytes          uint32        `yaml:"chunk_size_bytes"` // todo: do we need this?
+	FlushSizeBytes          uint32        `yaml:"flush_size_bytes"`
 	MaxCompactionRange      time.Duration `yaml:"compaction_window"`
 	MaxCompactionObjects    int           `yaml:"max_compaction_objects"`
 	BlockRetention          time.Duration `yaml:"block_retention"`
diff --git a/tempodb/wal/compactor_block.go b/tempodb/wal/compactor_block.go
index 797fe297da1..bf0d9a02963 100644
--- a/tempodb/wal/compactor_block.go
+++ b/tempodb/wal/compactor_block.go
@@ -65,6 +65,10 @@ func (c *CompactorBlock) CurrentBuffer() []byte {
 	return c.appendBuffer.Bytes()
 }
 
+func (c *CompactorBlock) CurrentBufferLength() int {
+	return c.appendBuffer.Len()
+}
+
 func (c *CompactorBlock) ResetBuffer() {
 	c.appendBuffer.Reset()
 }