diff --git a/nbxsync/tests/utils/test_duplicate_recovery.py b/nbxsync/tests/utils/test_duplicate_recovery.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9d14c628
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nbxsync/tests/utils/test_duplicate_recovery.py
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+"""Tests for recovering from a concurrent create in Zabbix.
+
+Two workers can create the same hostgroup/proxy/template between the lookup and
+the create call. Recovering from that race must not swallow genuine validation
+errors, so only Zabbix's -32602 'already exists' response is treated as a race.
+"""
+
+from django.test import TestCase
+
+from nbxsync.utils.sync.syncbase import ZabbixSyncBase
+
+
+class _ApiError(Exception):
+    def __init__(self, message, code=None, data=''):
+        super().__init__(f'{message} {data}'.strip())
+        if code is not None:
+            self.code = code
+        self.data = data
+        self.message = message
+
+
+class DuplicateErrorDetectionTestCase(TestCase):
+    def test_duplicate_params_error_is_recognised(self):
+        err = _ApiError('Invalid params.', code=-32602, data='Host group "Linux servers" already exists.')
+
+        self.assertTrue(ZabbixSyncBase._is_duplicate_error(err))
+
+    def test_other_invalid_params_error_is_not_a_duplicate(self):
+        err = _ApiError('Invalid params.', code=-32602, data='Incorrect value for field "name": cannot be empty.')
+
+        self.assertFalse(ZabbixSyncBase._is_duplicate_error(err))
+
+    def test_internal_error_is_not_a_duplicate(self):
+        err = _ApiError('Internal error.', code=-32500, data='already exists somewhere')
+
+        self.assertFalse(ZabbixSyncBase._is_duplicate_error(err))
+
+    def test_plain_exception_falls_back_to_the_message(self):
+        self.assertTrue(ZabbixSyncBase._is_duplicate_error(Exception('Host group already exists')))
+        self.assertFalse(ZabbixSyncBase._is_duplicate_error(Exception('Connection refused')))
diff --git a/nbxsync/utils/sync/syncbase.py b/nbxsync/utils/sync/syncbase.py
index 723a6d1f..6cb3e5ff 100644
--- a/nbxsync/utils/sync/syncbase.py
+++ b/nbxsync/utils/sync/syncbase.py
@@ -79,17 +79,42 @@ def sync(self):
             self.obj.update_sync_info(success=True)
 
     def try_create(self):
+        params = self.get_create_params()
+        if not params:
+            return None
         try:
-            # print('Create params:')
-            # print(self.get_create_params())
-            result = self.api_object().create(**self.get_create_params())
-            # print('Zabbix result: ')
-            # print(result)
+            result = self.api_object().create(**params)
             return result.get(self.result_key(), [None])[0]
         except Exception as err:
+            # Race condition: another concurrent job may have created the
+            # object between our find_by_name() check and this create().
+            # Recover only when Zabbix rejected the parameters (-32602) and
+            # exactly one object with our name now exists, so a genuine
+            # validation failure is still reported instead of silently
+            # adopting an unrelated object.
+            if self._is_duplicate_error(err):
+                found_by_name = self.find_by_name()
+                if len(found_by_name) == 1:
+                    logger.debug(f'{self.__class__.__name__} already existed (race), reusing ID')
+                    return found_by_name[0].get(self.id_field.split('.')[-1])
             msg = f'{self.__class__.__name__} creation failed: {err}'
             raise RuntimeError(msg)
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def _is_duplicate_error(err) -> bool:
+        """Whether a Zabbix API error reports an already-existing object.
+
+        zabbix_utils raises APIRequestError with the JSON-RPC payload attached.
+        Duplicates come back as "Invalid params" (-32602), whose data carries
+        the specific reason, so both the code and the reason are checked.
+        """
+        code = getattr(err, 'code', None)
+        if code is not None and int(code) != -32602:
+            return False
+        detail = ' '.join(str(part) for part in (getattr(err, 'data', ''), getattr(err, 'message', ''), err) if part)
+        return 'already exists' in detail.lower()
+
+
     def find_by_name(self):
         name_key = 'name'
         if self.name_field: