diff --git a/tests/unit/db-core-init.test.ts b/tests/unit/db-core-init.test.ts
index 47b87dd21d..b77e06e8b5 100644
--- a/tests/unit/db-core-init.test.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/db-core-init.test.ts
@@ -878,7 +878,7 @@ test(
         const restartedCore = await importFresh("src/lib/db/core.ts");
         assert.throws(
           () => restartedCore.getDbInstance(),
-          /Manual recovery required before startup/i
+          /Manual recovery required after probe failure/i
         );
         assert.equal(fs.existsSync(sqliteFile), false);
         core.resetDbInstance();