diff --git a/platforms/threads/scraper.py b/platforms/threads/scraper.py
index dee8005..d7728c0 100644
--- a/platforms/threads/scraper.py
+++ b/platforms/threads/scraper.py
@@ -559,8 +559,8 @@ def get_trending_threads_content(POST_ID: Optional[str] = None) -> dict:
                         for sp in search_posts:
                             if sp["post_id"] not in existing_ids:
                                 posts.append(sp)
-                    except Exception:
-                        pass
+                    except Exception as e:
+                        print_substep(f"Search query failed: {e}", "yellow")
 
             if not posts:
                 raise RuntimeError("No posts found in feed. Try again later.")
diff --git a/reddit/subreddit.py b/reddit/subreddit.py
index 25427c5..04ca7cf 100644
--- a/reddit/subreddit.py
+++ b/reddit/subreddit.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import re
+import sys
 
 import praw
 from praw.models import MoreComments
@@ -105,11 +106,20 @@ def get_subreddit_threads(POST_ID: str):
         submission = get_subreddit_undone(threads, subreddit)
 
     if submission is None:
-        return get_subreddit_threads(POST_ID)  # submission already done. rerun
+        # submission already done — retry with depth limit to prevent infinite recursion
+        if not hasattr(get_subreddit_threads, "_retry_depth"):
+            get_subreddit_threads._retry_depth = 0
+        get_subreddit_threads._retry_depth += 1
+        if get_subreddit_threads._retry_depth > 50:
+            raise RuntimeError("Exceeded retry limit (50) looking for an undone submission")
+        try:
+            return get_subreddit_threads(POST_ID)
+        finally:
+            get_subreddit_threads._retry_depth -= 1
 
     elif not submission.num_comments and settings.config["settings"]["storymode"] == "false":
         print_substep("No comments found. Skipping.")
-        exit()
+        sys.exit()
 
     submission = check_done(submission)  # double-checking
 
diff --git a/utils/posttextparser.py b/utils/posttextparser.py
index b26ab0f..7a085af 100644
--- a/utils/posttextparser.py
+++ b/utils/posttextparser.py
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 import os
 import re
+import subprocess
+import sys
 import time
 from typing import List
 
@@ -30,7 +32,10 @@ def posttextparser(obj, *, tried: bool = False) -> List[str]:
         nlp = spacy.load("en_core_web_sm")
     except OSError as e:
         if not tried:
-            os.system("python -m spacy download en_core_web_sm")
+            subprocess.run(
+                [sys.executable, "-m", "spacy", "download", "en_core_web_sm"],
+                check=False,
+            )
             time.sleep(5)
             return posttextparser(obj, tried=True)
         print_step(
diff --git a/utils/videos.py b/utils/videos.py
index b352968..2c109cf 100755
--- a/utils/videos.py
+++ b/utils/videos.py
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ def save_data(subreddit: str, filename: str, reddit_title: str, reddit_id: str,
         done_vids.append(payload)
         raw_vids.seek(0)
         json.dump(done_vids, raw_vids, ensure_ascii=False, indent=4)
+        raw_vids.truncate()
 
 
 def check_done_by_id(post_id: str) -> bool: