diff --git a/cmds/dumpstate/utils.cpp b/cmds/dumpstate/utils.cpp
index 1b8a5e4..c6dfa37 100644
--- a/cmds/dumpstate/utils.cpp
+++ b/cmds/dumpstate/utils.cpp
@@ -864,9 +864,9 @@
     }
 
     /* create a new, empty traces.txt file to receive stack dumps */
-    int fd = TEMP_FAILURE_RETRY(open(traces_path.c_str(),
-                                     O_CREAT | O_WRONLY | O_TRUNC | O_NOFOLLOW | O_CLOEXEC,
-                                     0666)); /* -rw-rw-rw- */
+    int fd = TEMP_FAILURE_RETRY(
+        open(traces_path.c_str(), O_CREAT | O_WRONLY | O_APPEND | O_TRUNC | O_NOFOLLOW | O_CLOEXEC,
+             0666)); /* -rw-rw-rw- */
     if (fd < 0) {
         MYLOGE("%s: %s\n", traces_path.c_str(), strerror(errno));
         return nullptr;