diff --git a/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c b/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c
index ef300a6c45a..f53aa9c404d 100644
--- a/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c
+++ b/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c
@@ -3041,9 +3041,19 @@ PostmasterStateMachine(void)
 			 */
 			ForgetUnstartedBackgroundWorkers();
 
-			SignalChildren(SIGTERM, targetMask);
+			/*
+			 * While processing a crash, targetMask includes the checkpointer
+			 * and the io workers.  These ignore SIGTERM, so upgrade to
+			 * SIGQUIT.
+			 */
+			if (FatalError)
+				HandleFatalError(PMQUIT_FOR_STOP, false);
+			else
+			{
+				SignalChildren(SIGTERM, targetMask);
 
-			UpdatePMState(PM_WAIT_BACKENDS);
+				UpdatePMState(PM_WAIT_BACKENDS);
+			}
 		}
 
 		/* Are any of the target processes still running? */
diff --git a/src/test/recovery/meson.build b/src/test/recovery/meson.build
index ebb12dd8766..aee97e4da2a 100644
--- a/src/test/recovery/meson.build
+++ b/src/test/recovery/meson.build
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ tests += {
       't/055_cascade_reconnect.pl',
       't/056_standby_snapshot_export.pl',
       't/057_snapshot_commit_race.pl',
+      't/058_shutdown_crash_restart.pl',
     ],
   },
 }
diff --git a/src/test/recovery/t/058_shutdown_crash_restart.pl b/src/test/recovery/t/058_shutdown_crash_restart.pl
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e46b3fe04cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/recovery/t/058_shutdown_crash_restart.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+# Copyright (c) 2026, PostgreSQL Global Development Group
+
+# Test shutdown during a crash restart, before WAL redo has started.  The
+# test relies on a fake restore_command that keeps the startup process at
+# some early stage, waiting for a shutdown to happen, with a checkpointer
+# spawned and running.
+
+use strict;
+use warnings FATAL => 'all';
+use FindBin;
+use PostgreSQL::Test::Cluster;
+use PostgreSQL::Test::Utils;
+use Test::More;
+
+my $node = PostgreSQL::Test::Cluster->new('node');
+$node->init(allows_streaming => 1);
+
+# Make the restarted startup process wait in restore_command until shutdown.
+my $perlbin = $^X;
+$perlbin =~ s!\\!/!g if $windows_os;
+my $logfile = $node->logfile;
+$logfile =~ s!\\!/!g if $windows_os;
+my $restore_timeout = $PostgreSQL::Test::Utils::timeout_default;
+
+# DEBUG2 is required for the checkpointer log entry lookup.
+$node->append_conf(
+	'postgresql.conf', qq{
+restart_after_crash = on
+log_min_messages = debug2
+restore_command = '"$perlbin" "$FindBin::RealBin/wait_for_shutdown" "$logfile" $restore_timeout'
+});
+$node->start;
+
+# Stop the background writer.
+$node->poll_query_until(
+	'postgres',
+	q{SELECT count(*) = 1 FROM pg_stat_activity
+	  WHERE backend_type = 'background writer'}
+) or die 'background writer did not start';
+my $pid = $node->safe_psql('postgres',
+	"SELECT pid FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE backend_type = 'background writer'"
+);
+$node->set_standby_mode;
+my $log_offset = -s $node->logfile;
+is(PostgreSQL::Test::Utils::system_log('pg_ctl', 'kill', 'QUIT', $pid),
+	0, "SIGQUIT sent to background writer");
+$node->wait_for_log(qr/restore_command waiting for shutdown/, $log_offset);
+
+# Wait until the new checkpointer has installed its SIGTERM handler.
+$node->wait_for_log(
+	qr/checkpointer updated shared memory configuration values/, $log_offset);
+
+ok($node->stop('fast', fail_ok => 1),
+	'fast shutdown completes during crash restart');
+
+unlike(
+	slurp_file($node->logfile, $log_offset),
+	qr/timed out waiting for shutdown request/,
+	'restore_command did not time out');
+
+done_testing();
diff --git a/src/test/recovery/t/wait_for_shutdown b/src/test/recovery/t/wait_for_shutdown
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..2d121f69267
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/recovery/t/wait_for_shutdown
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+
+# restore_command helper: wait until the server log shows a shutdown request.
+# This script accepts two arguments:
+# - A log file to monitor, inherited from the server spawned.
+# - A timeout value, defined by $PostgreSQL::Test::Utils::timeout_default.
+
+use strict;
+use warnings FATAL => 'all';
+use Time::HiRes qw(usleep);
+
+my ($logfile, $timeout) = @ARGV;
+
+print STDERR "restore_command waiting for shutdown\n";
+for (my $i = 0; $i < $timeout * 10; $i++)
+{
+	open my $fh, '<', $logfile or die "could not open $logfile: $!";
+	exit 1 if grep { /received \w+ shutdown request/ } <$fh>;
+	close $fh;
+	usleep(100_000);
+}
+die "timed out waiting for shutdown request\n";