diff --git a/src/vs/workbench/services/files/electron-browser/fileService.ts b/src/vs/workbench/services/files/electron-browser/fileService.ts
index 3a4184018645f202ecd186d9428ad4ca88ac7a9a..a8afc717f41f39a07b666af9c6398c26b9c5c094 100644
--- a/src/vs/workbench/services/files/electron-browser/fileService.ts
+++ b/src/vs/workbench/services/files/electron-browser/fileService.ts
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ import * as arrays from 'vs/base/common/arrays';
 import { TPromise } from 'vs/base/common/winjs.base';
 import * as objects from 'vs/base/common/objects';
 import * as extfs from 'vs/base/node/extfs';
-import { nfcall, ThrottledDelayer } from 'vs/base/common/async';
+import { nfcall, ThrottledDelayer, timeout } from 'vs/base/common/async';
 import { URI as uri } from 'vs/base/common/uri';
 import * as nls from 'vs/nls';
 import { isWindows, isLinux, isMacintosh } from 'vs/base/common/platform';
@@ -593,24 +593,28 @@ export class FileService extends Disposable implements IFileService {
 					else {
 
 						// 4.) truncate
-						let retryFromFailingTruncate = true;
 						return pfs.truncate(absolutePath, 0).then(() => {
-							retryFromFailingTruncate = false;
 
 							// 5.) set contents (with r+ mode) and resolve
-							return this.doSetContentsAndResolve(resource, absolutePath, value, addBom, encodingToWrite, { flag: 'r+' });
-						}, error => {
-							if (retryFromFailingTruncate) {
+							return this.doSetContentsAndResolve(resource, absolutePath, value, addBom, encodingToWrite, { flag: 'r+' }).then(null, error => {
 								if (this.environmentService.verbose) {
-									console.error(`Truncate failed (${error}), falling back to normal save`);
+									console.error(`Truncate succeeded, but save failed (${error}), retrying after 100ms`);
 								}
 
-								// we heard from users that fs.truncate() fails (https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/59561)
-								// in that case we simply save the file without truncating first (same as macOS and Linux)
-								return this.doSetContentsAndResolve(resource, absolutePath, value, addBom, encodingToWrite);
+								// we heard from one user that fs.truncate() succeeds, but the save fails (https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/61310)
+								// in that case, the file is now entirely empty and the contents are gone. this can happen if an external file watcher is
+								// installed that reacts on the truncate and keeps the file busy right after. Our workaround is to retry to save after a
+								// short timeout, assuming that the file is free to write then.
+								return timeout(100).then(() => this.doSetContentsAndResolve(resource, absolutePath, value, addBom, encodingToWrite, { flag: 'r+' }));
+							});
+						}, error => {
+							if (this.environmentService.verbose) {
+								console.error(`Truncate failed (${error}), falling back to normal save`);
 							}
 
-							return TPromise.wrapError(error);
+							// we heard from users that fs.truncate() fails (https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/59561)
+							// in that case we simply save the file without truncating first (same as macOS and Linux)
+							return this.doSetContentsAndResolve(resource, absolutePath, value, addBom, encodingToWrite);
 						});
 					}
 				});
diff --git a/src/vs/workbench/services/textfile/common/textFileEditorModel.ts b/src/vs/workbench/services/textfile/common/textFileEditorModel.ts
index f6e908bede0dce392f52b5e828bfa69223209501..d0efefbbbfd53af2bfd58709f8afc4a49cc44f8f 100644
--- a/src/vs/workbench/services/textfile/common/textFileEditorModel.ts
+++ b/src/vs/workbench/services/textfile/common/textFileEditorModel.ts
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ import { isLinux } from 'vs/base/common/platform';
 import { IDisposable, toDisposable } from 'vs/base/common/lifecycle';
 import { ILogService } from 'vs/platform/log/common/log';
 import { isEqual, isEqualOrParent } from 'vs/base/common/resources';
+import { onUnexpectedError } from 'vs/base/common/errors';
 
 /**
  * The text file editor model listens to changes to its underlying code editor model and saves these changes through the file service back to the disk.
@@ -846,7 +847,7 @@ export class TextFileEditorModel extends BaseTextEditorModel implements ITextFil
 
 			// Updated resolved stat with updated stat since touching it might have changed mtime
 			this.updateLastResolvedDiskStat(stat);
-		}, () => void 0 /* gracefully ignore errors if just touching */));
+		}, error => onUnexpectedError(error) /* just log any error but do not notify the user since the file was not dirty */));
 	}
 
 	private setDirty(dirty: boolean): () => void {