diff --git a/backend/metadata_writer/requirements.txt b/backend/metadata_writer/requirements.txt
index c77a354d4ef..6897654ae21 100644
--- a/backend/metadata_writer/requirements.txt
+++ b/backend/metadata_writer/requirements.txt
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ grpcio==1.66.1
     # via ml-metadata
 idna==3.10
     # via requests
-kubernetes==10.0.1
+kubernetes==31.0.0
     # via -r -
 lru-dict==1.3.0
     # via -r -
diff --git a/backend/metadata_writer/src/metadata_writer.py b/backend/metadata_writer/src/metadata_writer.py
index 8f21ff6256c..e305bb1e15b 100644
--- a/backend/metadata_writer/src/metadata_writer.py
+++ b/backend/metadata_writer/src/metadata_writer.py
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 import collections
 import kubernetes
 import yaml
+import urllib3
 from time import sleep
 import lru
 
@@ -30,7 +31,10 @@
 workflow_name_to_context_id_size = os.environ.get('WORKFLOW_NAME_TO_CONTEXT_ID_SIZE', 5000)
 pods_with_written_metadata_size = os.environ.get('PODS_WITH_WRITTEN_METADATA_SIZE', 5000)
 debug_files_size = os.environ.get('DEBUG_FILES_SIZE', 5000)
-
+# See the documentation on settings k8s_watch timeouts:
+# https://github.com/kubernetes-client/python/blob/master/examples/watch/timeout-settings.md
+k8s_watch_server_side_timeout = os.environ.get('K8S_WATCH_SERVER_SIDE_TIMEOUT', 1800)
+k8s_watch_client_side_timeout = os.environ.get('K8S_WATCH_CLIENT_SIDE_TIMEOUT', 60)
 
 kubernetes.config.load_incluster_config()
 k8s_api = kubernetes.client.CoreV1Api()
@@ -150,18 +154,18 @@ def is_kfp_v2_pod(pod) -> bool:
             k8s_api.list_namespaced_pod,
             namespace=namespace_to_watch,
             label_selector=ARGO_WORKFLOW_LABEL_KEY,
-            timeout_seconds=1800,  # Sometimes watch gets stuck
-            _request_timeout=2000,  # Sometimes HTTP GET gets stuck
+            timeout_seconds=k8s_watch_server_side_timeout, 
+            _request_timeout=k8s_watch_client_side_timeout,
         )
     else:
         pod_stream = k8s_watch.stream(
             k8s_api.list_pod_for_all_namespaces,
             label_selector=ARGO_WORKFLOW_LABEL_KEY,
-            timeout_seconds=1800,  # Sometimes watch gets stuck
-            _request_timeout=2000,  # Sometimes HTTP GET gets stuck
+            timeout_seconds=k8s_watch_server_side_timeout, 
+            _request_timeout=k8s_watch_client_side_timeout,
         )
-    for event in pod_stream:
-        try:
+    try:
+        for event in pod_stream:
             obj = event['object']
             print('Kubernetes Pod event: ', event['type'], obj.metadata.name, obj.metadata.resource_version)
             if event['type'] == 'ERROR':
@@ -393,6 +397,10 @@ def is_kfp_v2_pod(pod) -> bool:
 
                 pods_with_written_metadata[obj.metadata.name] = None
 
-        except Exception as e:
-            import traceback
-            print(traceback.format_exc())
+        # If the for loop ended, a server-side timeout occurred. Continue watching.
+        pass
+
+    except urllib3.exceptions.ReadTimeoutError as e:
+        # Client side timeout, continue watching.
+        continue
+ 
\ No newline at end of file