diff --git a/webui/src/components/imageQueue.ts b/webui/src/components/imageQueue.ts
index ca4ea1c..5acd30c 100644
--- a/webui/src/components/imageQueue.ts
+++ b/webui/src/components/imageQueue.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import { local } from "d3";
 import debug from "debug";
 const dbg = debug("upend:imageQueue");
 
@@ -11,8 +12,11 @@ class ImageQueue {
   }[] = [];
   active = 0;
 
+  debugHalt: boolean;
+
   constructor(concurrency: number) {
     this.concurrency = concurrency;
+    this.debugHalt = Boolean(localStorage.getItem("DEBUG:IMAGEHALT"));
   }
 
   public add(
@@ -44,6 +48,10 @@ class ImageQueue {
       const next = this.queue.splice(nextIdx, 1)[0];
       dbg(`Getting ${next.id}...`);
       this.active += 1;
+      next.element.classList.add("image-loading");
+      if (this.debugHalt) {
+        return;
+      }
       next
         .callback()
         .then(() => {
@@ -57,7 +65,6 @@ class ImageQueue {
           next.element.classList.remove("image-loading");
           this.update();
         });
-      next.element.classList.add("image-loading");
     }
 
     dbg(