diff --git a/save-to-eye b/save-to-eye
index 1f38afb..d4f37ec 100755
--- a/save-to-eye
+++ b/save-to-eye
@@ -35,6 +35,11 @@ cat ~/eye-control/download-parallelism || echo -n 50 > ~/eye-control/download-pa
 mkdir -p -- "$complete_dir"
 
 while read i; do
+	if [[ -f ~/eye-control/stop ]]; then
+		echo "exiting because stop file is present"
+		exit 1
+	fi
+
 	echo -E $i
 
 	eye_path=$(path-to-eye-path "$i" | sed -r "s,$HOME/stash/,,g")