diff --git a/br/pkg/lightning/backend/local/region_job.go b/br/pkg/lightning/backend/local/region_job.go
index 544df9a6ca310..a021937bdcad9 100644
--- a/br/pkg/lightning/backend/local/region_job.go
+++ b/br/pkg/lightning/backend/local/region_job.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ package local
 import (
 	"container/heap"
 	"context"
+	goerrors "errors"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
@@ -159,7 +160,7 @@ func (j *regionJob) convertStageTo(stage jobStageTp) {
 // we don't need to do cleanup for the pairs written to tikv if encounters an error,
 // tikv will take the responsibility to do so.
 // TODO: let client-go provide a high-level write interface.
-func (local *Backend) writeToTiKV(ctx context.Context, j *regionJob) error {
+func (local *Backend) writeToTiKV(pCtx context.Context, j *regionJob) (errRet error) {
 	if j.stage != regionScanned {
 		return nil
 	}
@@ -175,6 +176,19 @@ func (local *Backend) writeToTiKV(ctx context.Context, j *regionJob) error {
 		failpoint.Return(err)
 	})
 
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(pCtx, 15*time.Minute)
+	defer cancel()
+	defer func() {
+		deadline, ok := ctx.Deadline()
+		if !ok {
+			// should not happen
+			return
+		}
+		if goerrors.Is(errRet, context.DeadlineExceeded) && time.Now().After(deadline) {
+			errRet = common.ErrWriteTooSlow
+		}
+	}()
+
 	apiVersion := local.tikvCodec.GetAPIVersion()
 	clientFactory := local.importClientFactory
 	kvBatchSize := local.KVWriteBatchSize
diff --git a/br/pkg/lightning/common/retry.go b/br/pkg/lightning/common/retry.go
index 3445402fc028a..f5270cdbb2fd4 100644
--- a/br/pkg/lightning/common/retry.go
+++ b/br/pkg/lightning/common/retry.go
@@ -88,13 +88,19 @@ var retryableErrorIDs = map[errors.ErrorID]struct{}{
 	drivererr.ErrUnknown.ID():           {},
 }
 
+// ErrWriteTooSlow is used to get rid of the gRPC blocking issue.
+// there are some strange blocking issues of gRPC like
+// https://github.com/pingcap/tidb/issues/48352
+// https://github.com/pingcap/tidb/issues/46321 and I don't know why 😭
+var ErrWriteTooSlow = errors.New("write too slow, maybe gRPC is blocked forever")
+
 func isSingleRetryableError(err error) bool {
 	err = errors.Cause(err)
 
 	switch err {
 	case nil, context.Canceled, context.DeadlineExceeded, io.EOF, sql.ErrNoRows:
 		return false
-	case mysql.ErrInvalidConn, driver.ErrBadConn:
+	case mysql.ErrInvalidConn, driver.ErrBadConn, ErrWriteTooSlow:
 		return true
 	}
 
diff --git a/br/pkg/lightning/common/retry_test.go b/br/pkg/lightning/common/retry_test.go
index adec9ae2b6964..6e12c241381f7 100644
--- a/br/pkg/lightning/common/retry_test.go
+++ b/br/pkg/lightning/common/retry_test.go
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ import (
 func TestIsRetryableError(t *testing.T) {
 	require.False(t, IsRetryableError(context.Canceled))
 	require.False(t, IsRetryableError(context.DeadlineExceeded))
+	require.True(t, IsRetryableError(ErrWriteTooSlow))
 	require.False(t, IsRetryableError(io.EOF))
 	require.False(t, IsRetryableError(&net.AddrError{}))
 	require.False(t, IsRetryableError(&net.DNSError{}))