diff --git a/open_lm/distributed.py b/open_lm/distributed.py
index 8c07d663..f49e564f 100644
--- a/open_lm/distributed.py
+++ b/open_lm/distributed.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import logging
 import torch
 import torch.distributed as dist
+import datetime
 
 
 def is_global_master(args):
@@ -59,6 +60,9 @@ def init_distributed_device(args):
     args.local_rank = 0
     # For testing, allow forcing distributed mode to test distributed code path even on one gpu.
     if is_using_distributed() or args.force_distributed:
+
+        timeout = datetime.timedelta(seconds=args.backend_timeout) if args.backend_timeout else None
+
         if "SLURM_PROCID" in os.environ:
             # DDP via SLURM
             args.local_rank, args.rank, env_world_size = world_info_from_env()
@@ -79,13 +83,14 @@ def init_distributed_device(args):
                 init_method=args.dist_url,
                 world_size=args.world_size,
                 rank=args.rank,
+                timeout=timeout,
             )
         else:
             # DDP via torchrun, torch.distributed.launch
             # Note that this currently assumes that the world size is all gpus in a node.
             assert args.preset_world_size is None, "--preset_world_size with torchrun is not currently supported."
             args.local_rank, _, _ = world_info_from_env()
-            torch.distributed.init_process_group(backend=args.dist_backend, init_method=args.dist_url)
+            torch.distributed.init_process_group(backend=args.dist_backend, init_method=args.dist_url, timeout=timeout)
             args.world_size = torch.distributed.get_world_size()
             args.rank = torch.distributed.get_rank()
         args.distributed = True
diff --git a/open_lm/file_utils.py b/open_lm/file_utils.py
index f91919b2..12b6ea88 100644
--- a/open_lm/file_utils.py
+++ b/open_lm/file_utils.py
@@ -76,7 +76,6 @@ def remote_sync_with_expon_backoff(sync_every, local_dir, remote_dir, protocol,
         success = remote_sync(local_dir, remote_dir, protocol)
         if success:
             return True
-
     return False
 
 
diff --git a/open_lm/main.py b/open_lm/main.py
index 7c80f558..a3f77ce6 100644
--- a/open_lm/main.py
+++ b/open_lm/main.py
@@ -211,7 +211,8 @@ def save_checkpoint(
 ):
     cpu_state, optim_state = None, None
     if args.logs and args.logs.lower() != "none" and args.fsdp:
-        save_policy = FullStateDictConfig(offload_to_cpu=True, rank0_only=True)
+        rank0_only = not args.log_local
+        save_policy = FullStateDictConfig(offload_to_cpu=True, rank0_only=rank0_only)
         with FSDP.state_dict_type(model, StateDictType.FULL_STATE_DICT, save_policy):
             cpu_state = model.state_dict()
             optim_state = FSDP.optim_state_dict(model, optimizer)
@@ -380,7 +381,7 @@ def main(args):
     args.tensorboard = "tensorboard" in args.report_to or "all" in args.report_to
     args.checkpoint_path = os.path.join(log_base_path, "checkpoints")
     args.failed_checkpoint_path = os.path.join(log_base_path, "checkpoints_failed")
-    if is_master(args):
+    if is_master(args, local=args.log_local):
         args.tensorboard_path = os.path.join(log_base_path, "tensorboard") if args.tensorboard else ""
         for dirname in [args.tensorboard_path, args.checkpoint_path, args.failed_checkpoint_path]:
             if dirname:
@@ -424,9 +425,9 @@ def main(args):
     # start the sync proces if remote-sync is not None
     remote_sync_process = None
     if is_master(args) and args.remote_sync is not None:
-        # first make sure it works
+        # first make sure it works: here, remote_sync_frequency is set to 0 for this initial test
         result = remote_sync_with_expon_backoff(
-            args.remote_sync_frequency,
+            0,
             os.path.join(args.logs, args.name),
             os.path.join(args.remote_sync, args.name),
             args.remote_sync_protocol,
@@ -572,7 +573,7 @@ def main(args):
     if args.resume is not None and averagers is not None:
         load_avg_models(args, averagers)
 
-    if is_master(args):
+    if is_master(args, local=args.log_local):
         logging.info(f"Model (has {sum(p.numel() for p in model.parameters() if p.requires_grad)} parameters):")
         logging.info(f"{str(model)}")
         logging.info("Params:")
@@ -717,7 +718,7 @@ def main(args):
             raise ValueError(f"Unknown scheduler, {args.lr_scheduler}. Available options are: cosine, const.")
 
     # determine if this worker should save logs and checkpoints. only do so if it is rank == 0
-    args.save_logs = args.logs and args.logs.lower() != "none" and is_master(args)
+    args.save_logs = args.logs and args.logs.lower() != "none" and is_master(args, local=args.log_local)
     writer = None
     if args.save_logs and args.tensorboard:
         assert tensorboard is not None, "Please install tensorboard."
@@ -931,8 +932,9 @@ def main(args):
     if remote_sync_process is not None:
         logging.info("Final remote sync.")
         terminate_sync_process(remote_sync_process)
+        # Can just pass in sync_every=0 for last sync, otherwise will unecessarily sleep.
         result = remote_sync_with_expon_backoff(
-            args.remote_sync_frequency,
+            0,
             os.path.join(args.logs, args.name),
             os.path.join(args.remote_sync, args.name),
             args.remote_sync_protocol,
diff --git a/open_lm/params.py b/open_lm/params.py
index 0a7a3f64..4c66c8ee 100644
--- a/open_lm/params.py
+++ b/open_lm/params.py
@@ -787,6 +787,12 @@ def parse_args(args):
         default=0,
         help="This is the maximum number of failed checkpoints (due to not having seen enough tokens) that are allowed",
     )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--backend-timeout",
+        type=int,
+        default=None,
+        help="This the number of seconds passed into the timeout arg for torch.distributed.init_process_group.",
+    )
 
     add_model_args(parser)