diff --git a/docs/appendices/0.38.0-migration-guide.md b/docs/appendices/0.38.0-migration-guide.md
index 4c809cf6e..5debbd56f 100644
--- a/docs/appendices/0.38.0-migration-guide.md
+++ b/docs/appendices/0.38.0-migration-guide.md
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 - During a fresh apt install, the upstream nginx default vhost files (`/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default`, `/etc/nginx/sites-available/default`, and `/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf`) are renamed to `${path}.dokku-disabled` (not deleted) to avoid a `duplicate default server for 0.0.0.0:80` error. Operators with local customizations can recover them by inspecting the `.dokku-disabled` siblings. Upgrade-in-place installs do not touch any existing nginx files.
 - Fresh apt installs now ship a catch-all default site at `/etc/nginx/conf.d/00-default-vhost.conf` that rejects requests with unknown Host headers using `ssl_reject_handshake on` (HTTPS) and `return 444` (HTTP). This replaces the manual workaround previously documented in the nginx docs. The behavior can be opted out at install time via the `dokku/install_default_site` debconf prompt. See the [Default site documentation](/docs/networking/proxies/nginx.md#default-site).
 - The `docker-local` scheduler now sends `SIGTERM` to old containers immediately after a successful deploy, rather than waiting `wait-to-retire` seconds before signaling. This matches Heroku's graceful-shutdown contract and lets applications begin draining in-flight work as soon as proxy traffic switches. The `wait-to-retire` grace period and `stop-timeout-seconds` hard-stop continue to apply as before. See the [zero downtime deploys documentation](/docs/deployment/zero-downtime-deploys.md#wait-to-retire) for more details.
+- The `docker-local` scheduler no longer queues an image for retirement when another running container of the same app still uses it. This fixes the case where a `ps:rebuild` against an image-based deploy (`git:from-image`) produced an identical-SHA image and the `dokku-retire` cron timer would log `Image ... has running containers, skipping rm` on every run. Stuck entries from prior versions are pruned automatically on the next `ps:retire` run.
 
 ### TLS handshake behavior change
 
diff --git a/plugins/scheduler-docker-local/internal-functions b/plugins/scheduler-docker-local/internal-functions
index d0cfdb061..dd34eecbe 100755
--- a/plugins/scheduler-docker-local/internal-functions
+++ b/plugins/scheduler-docker-local/internal-functions
@@ -243,6 +243,11 @@ fn-scheduler-docker-local-retire-images() {
     fi
 
     if echo "$RM_OUTPUT" | grep -q "image is being used by running container"; then
+      if fn-scheduler-docker-local-image-in-use-by-app "$RETIRE_APP" "$IMAGE_ID" ""; then
+        dokku_log_warn "Image ${IMAGE_ID} is still in use by ${RETIRE_APP}, removing from retire list"
+        DEAD_IMAGES+=("$IMAGE_ID")
+        continue
+      fi
       dokku_log_warn "Image ${IMAGE_ID} has running containers, skipping rm"
       continue
     fi
@@ -273,6 +278,39 @@ fn-scheduler-docker-local-register-retired() {
   fi
 }
 
+fn-scheduler-docker-local-image-in-use-by-app() {
+  declare desc="returns 0 if IMAGE_ID is used by an app container that is not already pending retirement"
+  declare APP="$1" IMAGE_ID="$2" EXCLUDE_CONTAINER_ID="$3"
+  local DEAD_CONTAINER_FILE="${DOKKU_LIB_ROOT}/data/scheduler-docker-local/dead-containers"
+  local cid exclude_full_id container_image short_cid
+
+  if [[ -z "$IMAGE_ID" ]]; then
+    return 1
+  fi
+
+  if [[ -n "$EXCLUDE_CONTAINER_ID" ]]; then
+    exclude_full_id="$("$DOCKER_BIN" container inspect "$EXCLUDE_CONTAINER_ID" --format '{{.Id}}' 2>/dev/null || true)"
+  fi
+
+  for cid in $("$DOCKER_BIN" container ls -q --no-trunc -f label=com.dokku.app-name="$APP" 2>/dev/null); do
+    [[ -z "$cid" ]] && continue
+    if [[ -n "$exclude_full_id" ]] && [[ "$cid" == "$exclude_full_id" ]]; then
+      continue
+    fi
+
+    short_cid="${cid:0:12}"
+    if [[ -f "$DEAD_CONTAINER_FILE" ]] && grep -q "$short_cid" "$DEAD_CONTAINER_FILE"; then
+      continue
+    fi
+
+    container_image="$("$DOCKER_BIN" container inspect "$cid" --format '{{.Image}}' 2>/dev/null | cut -d: -f2 || true)"
+    if [[ -n "$container_image" ]] && [[ "$container_image" == "$IMAGE_ID" ]]; then
+      return 0
+    fi
+  done
+  return 1
+}
+
 fn-scheduler-docker-local-start-app-container() {
   declare desc="starts a single app container"
   declare APP="$1"
diff --git a/plugins/scheduler-docker-local/scheduler-register-retired b/plugins/scheduler-docker-local/scheduler-register-retired
index 2c700205e..3d16d7fbc 100755
--- a/plugins/scheduler-docker-local/scheduler-register-retired
+++ b/plugins/scheduler-docker-local/scheduler-register-retired
@@ -21,12 +21,17 @@ trigger-scheduler-docker-local-scheduler-register-retired() {
   if [[ -n "$IMAGE_ID" ]] && [[ -z "$DOKKU_SKIP_IMAGE_CLEANUP_REGISTRATION" ]]; then
     ALT_IMAGE_TAGS="$("$DOCKER_BIN" image inspect --format '{{ index .Config.Labels "com.dokku.docker-image-labeler/alternate-tags" }}' "$IMAGE_ID" 2>/dev/null || true)"
 
-    fn-scheduler-docker-local-register-retired "image" "$APP" "$IMAGE_ID" "$WAIT"
+    if ! fn-scheduler-docker-local-image-in-use-by-app "$APP" "$IMAGE_ID" "$CONTAINER_ID"; then
+      fn-scheduler-docker-local-register-retired "image" "$APP" "$IMAGE_ID" "$WAIT"
+    fi
     if [[ -n "$ALT_IMAGE_TAGS" ]]; then
       ALT_IMAGE_TAG="$(echo "$ALT_IMAGE_TAGS" | jq -r ".[]")"
       if [[ "$(plugn trigger git-get-property "$APP" "source-image")" != "$ALT_IMAGE_TAG" ]]; then
         ALT_IMAGE_ID="$("$DOCKER_BIN" image inspect --format '{{ .Id }}' "$ALT_IMAGE_TAG" 2>/dev/null || true)"
-        fn-scheduler-docker-local-register-retired "image" "$APP" "$(echo "$ALT_IMAGE_ID" | cut -d ':' -f2)" "$WAIT"
+        ALT_IMAGE_ID="$(echo "$ALT_IMAGE_ID" | cut -d ':' -f2)"
+        if [[ -n "$ALT_IMAGE_ID" ]] && ! fn-scheduler-docker-local-image-in-use-by-app "$APP" "$ALT_IMAGE_ID" "$CONTAINER_ID"; then
+          fn-scheduler-docker-local-register-retired "image" "$APP" "$ALT_IMAGE_ID" "$WAIT"
+        fi
       fi
     fi
   fi
diff --git a/tests/unit/scheduler-docker-local.bats b/tests/unit/scheduler-docker-local.bats
index 1260c127e..88bafef00 100644
--- a/tests/unit/scheduler-docker-local.bats
+++ b/tests/unit/scheduler-docker-local.bats
@@ -264,3 +264,47 @@ teardown() {
   echo "status: $status"
   assert_output "$TEST_APP.web.1"
 }
+
+@test "(scheduler-docker-local) ps:rebuild with image-based deploy keeps running image" {
+  run create_app
+  echo "output: $output"
+  echo "status: $status"
+  assert_success
+
+  run /bin/bash -c "dokku checks:set $TEST_APP wait-to-retire 1"
+  echo "output: $output"
+  echo "status: $status"
+  assert_success
+
+  run /bin/bash -c "dokku git:from-image $TEST_APP cockpithq/cockpit:core-latest"
+  echo "output: $output"
+  echo "status: $status"
+  assert_success
+
+  local running_image
+  running_image="$(docker container inspect "$TEST_APP.web.1" --format '{{.Image}}' | cut -d: -f2)"
+  [[ -n "$running_image" ]]
+
+  run /bin/bash -c "dokku ps:rebuild $TEST_APP"
+  echo "output: $output"
+  echo "status: $status"
+  assert_success
+
+  sleep 3
+
+  run /bin/bash -c "dokku ps:retire"
+  echo "output: $output"
+  echo "status: $status"
+  assert_success
+  assert_output_contains "has running containers, skipping rm" 0
+
+  run /bin/bash -c "grep -F \"$running_image\" /var/lib/dokku/data/scheduler-docker-local/dead-images 2>/dev/null || true"
+  echo "output: $output"
+  echo "status: $status"
+  assert_output ""
+
+  run /bin/bash -c "docker container inspect $TEST_APP.web.1 --format '{{.State.Status}}'"
+  echo "output: $output"
+  echo "status: $status"
+  assert_output "running"
+}