diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/fix-shardbackupmetadata-non-atomic-store.yml b/changelog/unreleased/fix-shardbackupmetadata-non-atomic-store.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..30b2ad9ac4ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/fix-shardbackupmetadata-non-atomic-store.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+# See https://github.com/apache/solr/blob/main/dev-docs/changelog.adoc
+title: Fix non-atomic write in ShardBackupMetadata.store() that can destroy backup metadata
+type: fixed # added, changed, fixed, deprecated, removed, dependency_update, security, other
+authors:
+  - name: Mark Miller
+links:
+  - name: SOLR-18249
+    url: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SOLR-18249
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/backup/ShardBackupMetadata.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/backup/ShardBackupMetadata.java
index 73e1a13637ad..65f46bf28f26 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/backup/ShardBackupMetadata.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/backup/ShardBackupMetadata.java
@@ -28,7 +28,6 @@
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Optional;
-import java.util.Set;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.IOContext;
 import org.apache.lucene.store.IndexInput;
 import org.apache.solr.common.util.Utils;
@@ -110,10 +109,6 @@ public static ShardBackupMetadata from(
   public void store(BackupRepository repository, URI folderURI, ShardBackupId shardBackupId)
       throws IOException {
     final String filename = shardBackupId.getBackupMetadataFilename();
-    URI fileURI = repository.resolve(folderURI, filename);
-    if (repository.exists(fileURI)) {
-      repository.delete(folderURI, Set.of(filename));
-    }
 
     try (OutputStream os = repository.createOutput(repository.resolve(folderURI, filename))) {
       store(os);
diff --git a/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/core/backup/ShardBackupMetadataTest.java b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/core/backup/ShardBackupMetadataTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..ffd6af4b1ce5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/solr/core/src/test/org/apache/solr/core/backup/ShardBackupMetadataTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.solr.core.backup;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.OutputStream;
+import java.net.URI;
+import org.apache.solr.SolrTestCase;
+import org.apache.solr.common.util.NamedList;
+import org.apache.solr.core.backup.repository.BackupRepository;
+import org.apache.solr.core.backup.repository.LocalFileSystemRepository;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+/** Unit tests for {@link ShardBackupMetadata} */
+public class ShardBackupMetadataTest extends SolrTestCase {
+
+  @Test
+  public void testStorePreservesDataOnWriteFailure() throws Exception {
+    LocalFileSystemRepository repo = new LocalFileSystemRepository();
+    repo.init(new NamedList<>());
+
+    URI baseDir = createTempDir().toUri();
+    repo.createDirectory(baseDir);
+
+    ShardBackupId shardBackupId = new ShardBackupId("shard1", BackupId.zero());
+
+    // Store original metadata
+    ShardBackupMetadata original = ShardBackupMetadata.empty();
+    original.addBackedFile("unique1", "file1.si", new Checksum(12345L, 100L));
+    original.store(repo, baseDir, shardBackupId);
+
+    // Verify original is readable
+    ShardBackupMetadata readBack = ShardBackupMetadata.from(repo, baseDir, shardBackupId);
+    assertNotNull("Original metadata should be readable", readBack);
+    assertTrue(readBack.listOriginalFileNames().contains("file1.si"));
+
+    // Now attempt to overwrite using a repo that fails during createOutput.
+    // With the bug (delete-before-write), this destroys the original metadata.
+    // With the fix, the original metadata survives because no delete occurs.
+    FailingOutputRepository failingRepo = new FailingOutputRepository(repo);
+    try {
+      ShardBackupMetadata replacement = ShardBackupMetadata.empty();
+      replacement.addBackedFile("unique2", "file2.si", new Checksum(67890L, 200L));
+      replacement.store(failingRepo, baseDir, shardBackupId);
+      fail("Expected IOException from failing repository");
+    } catch (IOException expected) {
+      // expected
+    }
+
+    // The original metadata should still be readable after the failed overwrite
+    ShardBackupMetadata afterFailure = ShardBackupMetadata.from(repo, baseDir, shardBackupId);
+    assertNotNull("Original metadata should survive a failed overwrite attempt", afterFailure);
+    assertTrue(
+        "Original file should still be in metadata after failed overwrite",
+        afterFailure.listOriginalFileNames().contains("file1.si"));
+
+    repo.close();
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * A BackupRepository wrapper that delegates all operations to a real repository but throws
+   * IOException on createOutput, simulating a write failure.
+   */
+  private static class FailingOutputRepository extends LocalFileSystemRepository {
+    private final BackupRepository delegate;
+
+    FailingOutputRepository(BackupRepository delegate) {
+      this.delegate = delegate;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public boolean exists(URI path) throws IOException {
+      return delegate.exists(path);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void delete(URI path, java.util.Collection<String> files) throws IOException {
+      delegate.delete(path, files);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public URI resolve(URI baseUri, String... pathComponents) {
+      return delegate.resolve(baseUri, pathComponents);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public OutputStream createOutput(URI path) throws IOException {
+      throw new IOException("Simulated write failure");
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void close() {}
+  }
+}