diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index cd147a24..bc0ae922 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -13,6 +13,12 @@ on:
       - ".github/workflows/composite-cmake/**"
   pull_request:
 
+env:
+  # Due to busy file system problems on the CI runners, we introduced a patch to
+  # sleep if the MPI count of an I/O operation is unexpectedly 0 and then retry
+  # the I/O operation once. The time is in milliseconds.
+  SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME: 500
+
 jobs:
 
   linux-multi:
@@ -29,6 +35,9 @@ jobs:
     - name: Checkout source code
       uses: actions/checkout@main
 
+    - name: Patch I/O for CI by sleeping if I/O intensity is too high
+      run: git apply doc/patch/patch-CI-IO.patch
+
     - name: Run bootstrap script
       run: ./bootstrap
 
@@ -37,7 +46,8 @@ jobs:
       run: |
         DIR="checkMPIdebug_shared" && mkdir -p "$DIR" && cd "$DIR"
         ../configure --enable-mpi --enable-debug --disable-shared \
-            CFLAGS="-O0 -g -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter"
+            CFLAGS="-O0 -g -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter" \
+            CPPFLAGS="-DSC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP=$SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME"
         make -j V=0
         make -j check V=0
 
@@ -45,7 +55,8 @@ jobs:
       shell: bash
       run: |
         DIR="checkMPI" && mkdir -p "$DIR" && cd "$DIR"
-        ../configure --enable-mpi CFLAGS="-O2"
+        ../configure --enable-mpi CFLAGS="-O2" \
+            CPPFLAGS="-DSC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP=$SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME"
         make -j V=0
         make -j check V=0
 
@@ -53,7 +64,8 @@ jobs:
       shell: bash
       run: |
         DIR="checkdebug" && mkdir -p "$DIR" && cd "$DIR"
-        ../configure --enable-debug CFLAGS="-O0 -g -Wall -Wno-uninitialized"
+        ../configure --enable-debug CFLAGS="-O0 -g -Wall -Wno-uninitialized" \
+        CPPFLAGS="-DSC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP=$SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME"
         make -j V=0
         make -j check V=0
 
@@ -66,7 +78,8 @@ jobs:
       shell: bash
       run: |
         DIR="checkMPIdebugCXX" && mkdir -p "$DIR" && cd "$DIR"
-        ../configure --enable-mpi --enable-debug CFLAGS="-O0" CC=mpicxx
+        ../configure --enable-mpi --enable-debug CFLAGS="-O0" CC=mpicxx \
+        CPPFLAGS="-DSC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP=$SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME"
         make -j V=0
         make -j check V=0
 
@@ -75,7 +88,8 @@ jobs:
       run: |
         DIR="checkOpenMPMPIdebug" && mkdir -p "$DIR" && cd "$DIR"
         ../configure --enable-openmp="-fopenmp" --enable-mpi \
-            --enable-debug CFLAGS="-O0"
+            --enable-debug CFLAGS="-O0" \
+            CPPFLAGS="-DSC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP=$SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME"
         make -j V=0
         make -j check V=0
 
@@ -83,7 +97,7 @@ jobs:
       shell: bash
       run: |
         DIR="distcheck" && mkdir -p "$DIR" && cd "$DIR"
-        ../configure
+        ../configure CPPFLAGS="-DSC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP=$SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME"
         make -j distcheck V=0
 
     - name: Upload log files
@@ -110,6 +124,9 @@ jobs:
     - name: Checkout source code
       uses: actions/checkout@main
 
+    - name: Patch I/O for CI by sleeping if I/O intensity is too high
+      run: git apply doc/patch/patch-CI-IO.patch
+
     - name: Run bootstrap script
       run: ./bootstrap
 
@@ -119,7 +136,8 @@ jobs:
         DIR="checkMPIdebug_valgrind" && mkdir -p "$DIR" && cd "$DIR"
         ../configure --enable-mpi --enable-debug \
                      --disable-shared --enable-valgrind \
-          CFLAGS="-O0 -g -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter"
+          CFLAGS="-O0 -g -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter" \
+          CPPFLAGS="-DSC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP=$SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME"
         make -j V=0
         make -j check V=0
 
@@ -149,6 +167,9 @@ jobs:
       with:
         fetch-depth: 0
 
+    - name: Patch I/O for CI by sleeping if I/O intensity is too high
+      run: git apply doc/patch/patch-CI-IO.patch
+
     - name: Identify version
       shell: bash
       run: |
@@ -165,7 +186,8 @@ jobs:
         ../configure --enable-mpi --enable-debug \
             CFLAGS="-O0 -g -pedantic -Wall -Wextra -Werror \
                 -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-builtin-declaration-mismatch \
-                -Wno-implicit-fallthrough"
+                -Wno-implicit-fallthrough" \
+                CPPFLAGS="-DSC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP=$SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME"
         make -j V=0
         make -j check V=0
         make -j distcheck V=0
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci_cmake.yml b/.github/workflows/ci_cmake.yml
index 733e46c2..ee1e9bf5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci_cmake.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci_cmake.yml
@@ -20,6 +20,10 @@ env:
   CTEST_PARALLEL_LEVEL: 0
   CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX: ~/local
   CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH: ~/local
+  # Due to busy file system problems on the CI runners, we introduced a patch to
+  # sleep if the MPI count of an I/O operation is unexpectedly 0 and then retry
+  # the I/O operation once. The time is in milliseconds.
+  SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME: 500
 
 jobs:
 
@@ -47,6 +51,9 @@ jobs:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v4
       name: Checkout source code
 
+    - name: Patch I/O for CI by sleeping if I/O intensity is too high
+      run: git apply doc/patch/patch-CI-IO.patch
+
     - name: Install system dependencies
       if: ${{ matrix.mpi }}
       run: |
@@ -76,6 +83,9 @@ jobs:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v4
       name: Checkout source code
 
+    - name: Patch I/O for CI by sleeping if I/O intensity is too high
+      run: git apply doc/patch/patch-CI-IO.patch
+
     - name: Install system dependencies
       if: ${{ matrix.mpi }}
       run: |
@@ -112,6 +122,14 @@ jobs:
     - name: Checkout source code
       uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
+    - name: Patch I/O for CI by sleeping if I/O intensity is too high
+      run: git apply doc/patch/patch-CI-IO.patch
+
+    - name: Set macro for I/O waiting
+      shell: bash
+      # use an enviroment variable to prepend the flag to the bulit-in compiler flags
+      run: echo "CFLAGS=-DSC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP=$SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
+
     - name: CMake configure
       run: cmake --preset default -DSC_ENABLE_MPI:BOOL=${{ matrix.mpi }} -DSC_TEST_WITH_VALGRIND:BOOL=${{ matrix.valgrind }}
 
@@ -154,6 +172,9 @@ jobs:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v4
       name: Checkout source code
 
+    - name: Patch I/O for CI by sleeping if I/O intensity is too high
+      run: git apply doc/patch/patch-CI-IO.patch
+
     - name: Install system dependencies
       run: brew install open-mpi
 
@@ -177,6 +198,9 @@ jobs:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v4
       name: Checkout source code
 
+    - name: Patch I/O for CI by sleeping if I/O intensity is too high
+      run: git apply doc/patch/patch-CI-IO.patch
+
     - run: echo "CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$HOME/local" | Out-File -FilePath $env:GITHUB_ENV -Encoding utf8 -Append
 
     - run: echo "CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$HOME/local" | Out-File -FilePath $env:GITHUB_ENV -Encoding utf8 -Append
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci_darwin.yml b/.github/workflows/ci_darwin.yml
index 7d586ed9..fe0944cb 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci_darwin.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci_darwin.yml
@@ -13,6 +13,12 @@ on:
       - ".github/workflows/composite-cmake/**"
   pull_request:
 
+env:
+  # Due to busy file system problems on the CI runners, we introduced a patch to
+  # sleep if the MPI count of an I/O operation is unexpectedly 0 and then retry
+  # the I/O operation once. The time is in milliseconds.
+  SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME: 500
+
 jobs:
   darwin:
     runs-on: macos-latest
@@ -26,6 +32,9 @@ jobs:
      - uses: actions/checkout@main
        name: Checkout source code
 
+     - name: Patch I/O for CI by sleeping if I/O intensity is too high
+       run: git apply doc/patch/patch-CI-IO.patch
+
      - name: Install system dependencies
        run: brew install open-mpi libtool automake
 
@@ -36,7 +45,8 @@ jobs:
        run: |
           DIR="checkdebug" && mkdir -p "$DIR" && cd "$DIR"
           ../configure --enable-debug \
-            CFLAGS="-O0 -g -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter"
+            CFLAGS="-O0 -g -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter" \
+            CPPFLAGS="-DSC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP=$SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME"
           make -j V=0
           make -j check V=0
 
@@ -44,7 +54,8 @@ jobs:
        run: |
           DIR="checkMPIdebug" && mkdir -p "$DIR" && cd "$DIR"
           ../configure --enable-mpi --enable-debug \
-            CFLAGS="-O0 -g -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter"
+            CFLAGS="-O0 -g -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter" \
+            CPPFLAGS="-DSC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP=$SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME"
           make -j V=0
           make -j check V=0
 
@@ -52,7 +63,8 @@ jobs:
        run: |
           DIR="checkMPIdebugCXX" && mkdir -p "$DIR" && cd "$DIR"
           ../configure --enable-mpi --enable-debug CC=mpicxx \
-            CFLAGS="-O0 -g -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter"
+            CFLAGS="-O0 -g -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter" \
+            CPPFLAGS="-DSC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP=$SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME"
           make -j V=0
           make -j check V=0
 
diff --git a/.github/workflows/composite-cmake/action.yml b/.github/workflows/composite-cmake/action.yml
index 4652e7a6..0e471cf5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/composite-cmake/action.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/composite-cmake/action.yml
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ runs:
   using: "composite"
 
   steps:
+  - name: Set macro for I/O waiting
+    shell: bash
+    # use an enviroment variable to prepend the flag to the bulit-in compiler flags
+    run: echo "CFLAGS=-DSC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP=$SC_IO_SLEEP_TIME" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
   - name: CMake configure
     shell: bash
     run: >-
diff --git a/doc/patch/patch-CI-IO.patch b/doc/patch/patch-CI-IO.patch
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fd502957
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/patch/patch-CI-IO.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+From 3860abed348e7157ce8fd6518729265c5c21ee34 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Tim Griesbach <tim.griesbach@uni-bonn.de>
+Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2025 15:23:29 +0100
+Subject: [PATCH] Implement sleep and retry in case of busy file system
+
+---
+ src/sc_io.c | 67 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----
+ 1 file changed, 63 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
+
+diff --git a/src/sc_io.c b/src/sc_io.c
+index 4cfc7b81..904fc573 100644
+--- a/src/sc_io.c
++++ b/src/sc_io.c
+@@ -37,6 +37,34 @@
+ #include <errno.h>
+ #endif
+ 
++/** In case of an unexpected retrieved count 0, this macro sleeps and retries.
++ * In the Github Actions CI, we experienced transient CI failures due to the
++ * file system not performing requested I/O operations.
++ *
++ * The macro can be only callled in the case that expected count is unequal 0.
++ * It checks if count is 0 and if this is true, it sleeps and then retries the
++ * I/O operation once.
++ */
++#define SC_IO_SLEEP_AND_RETRY(func, time) do {\
++                                    retval = sc_io_error_class (sc_MPI_SUCCESS,\
++                                                                  &errcode);\
++                                    SC_CHECK_MPI (retval);\
++                                    if (*ocount == 0) {\
++                                      sc_sleep (time);\
++                                      mpiret = func (mpifile, offset,\
++                                                     (void *) ptr, count, t,\
++                                                     &mpistatus);\
++                                      if (mpiret == sc_MPI_SUCCESS) {\
++                                        retval = sc_MPI_Get_count (&mpistatus,\
++                                                                   t, ocount);\
++                                        SC_CHECK_MPI (retval);\
++                                      }\
++                                      retval = sc_io_error_class (mpiret,\
++                                                                  &errcode);\
++                                      SC_CHECK_MPI (retval);\
++                                    }} while (0)
++
++
+ sc_io_sink_t       *
+ sc_io_sink_new (int iotype, int iomode, int ioencode, ...)
+ {
+@@ -1723,7 +1751,15 @@ sc_io_read_at (sc_MPI_File mpifile, sc_MPI_Offset offset, void *ptr,
+     /* working around 0 count not working for some implementations */
+     mpiret = sc_MPI_Get_count (&mpistatus, t, ocount);
+     SC_CHECK_MPI (mpiret);
+-    return sc_MPI_SUCCESS;
++
++    /* This macro sleeps and tries the I/O operation again if the requested I/O
++     * operation was not performed by the file system.
++     * The macro SC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP is expected to be defined during
++     * configuration.
++     */
++    SC_IO_SLEEP_AND_RETRY (MPI_File_read_at, SC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP);
++
++    return errcode;
+   }
+   retval = sc_io_error_class (mpiret, &errcode);
+   SC_CHECK_MPI (retval);
+@@ -1806,7 +1842,14 @@ sc_io_read_at_all (sc_MPI_File mpifile, sc_MPI_Offset offset, void *ptr,
+     mpiret = sc_MPI_Get_count (&mpistatus, t, ocount);
+     SC_CHECK_MPI (mpiret);
+ 
+-    return sc_MPI_SUCCESS;
++    /* This macro sleeps and tries the I/O operation again if the requested I/O
++     * operation was not performed by the file system.
++     * The macro SC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP is expected to be defined during
++     * configuration.
++     */
++    SC_IO_SLEEP_AND_RETRY (MPI_File_read_at_all, SC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP);
++
++    return errcode;
+   }
+ 
+   retval = sc_io_error_class (mpiret, &errcode);
+@@ -2008,7 +2051,15 @@ sc_io_write_at (sc_MPI_File mpifile, sc_MPI_Offset offset,
+     /* working around 0 count not working for some implementations */
+     mpiret = sc_MPI_Get_count (&mpistatus, t, ocount);
+     SC_CHECK_MPI (mpiret);
+-    return sc_MPI_SUCCESS;
++
++    /* This macro sleeps and tries the I/O operation again if the requested I/O
++     * operation was not performed by the file system.
++     * The macro SC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP is expected to be defined during
++     * configuration.
++     */
++    SC_IO_SLEEP_AND_RETRY (MPI_File_write_at, SC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP);
++
++    return errcode;
+   }
+   retval = sc_io_error_class (mpiret, &errcode);
+   SC_CHECK_MPI (retval);
+@@ -2091,7 +2142,15 @@ sc_io_write_at_all (sc_MPI_File mpifile, sc_MPI_Offset offset,
+     /* working around 0 count not working for some implementations */
+     mpiret = sc_MPI_Get_count (&mpistatus, t, ocount);
+     SC_CHECK_MPI (mpiret);
+-    return sc_MPI_SUCCESS;
++
++    /* This macro sleeps and tries the I/O operation again if the requested I/O
++     * operation was not performed by the file system.
++     * The macro SC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP is expected to be defined during
++     * configuration.
++     */
++    SC_IO_SLEEP_AND_RETRY (MPI_File_write_at_all, SC_HACK_MPI_SLEEP);
++
++    return errcode;
+   }
+ 
+   retval = sc_io_error_class (mpiret, &errcode);
+-- 
+2.30.2
+
diff --git a/src/sc.c b/src/sc.c
index ddf994d1..a30f9bb8 100644
--- a/src/sc.c
+++ b/src/sc.c
@@ -48,6 +48,12 @@ typedef void        (*sc_sig_t) (int);
 #include <Windows.h>
 #endif
 
+#if _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 199309L
+#include <time.h>
+#else
+#include <unistd.h>
+#endif
+
 typedef struct sc_package
 {
   int                 is_registered;
@@ -1626,3 +1632,25 @@ sc_have_json (void)
   return 1;
 #endif
 }
+
+void
+sc_sleep (unsigned milliseconds){
+#if _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 199309L
+  struct timespec ts;
+  /* full seconds */
+  ts.tv_sec = milliseconds / 1000;
+  /* nanoseconds */
+  ts.tv_nsec = (milliseconds % 1000) * 1000000;
+  nanosleep (&ts, NULL);
+#elif defined(_POSIX_C_SOURCE)
+  /* older POSIX */
+  if (milliseconds >= 1000) {
+    sleep (milliseconds / 1000);
+  }
+  usleep ((milliseconds % 1000) * 1000);
+#elif _MSC_VER
+  Sleep (milliseconds);
+#else
+  SC_ABORT ("No suitable sleep function available.");
+#endif
+}
diff --git a/src/sc.h b/src/sc.h
index 17991f3f..e550807f 100644
--- a/src/sc.h
+++ b/src/sc.h
@@ -878,6 +878,12 @@ int                 sc_have_zlib (void);
  */
 int                 sc_have_json (void);
 
+/** Portable function to sleep a prescribed amount of milliseconds.
+ *
+ * \param [in] milliseconds The number of milliseconds to sleep.
+ */
+void                sc_sleep (unsigned milliseconds);
+
 SC_EXTERN_C_END;
 
 #endif /* SC_H */