diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/config.py b/src/axolotl/utils/config.py
index 1b4ce9246..d9e56b95a 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/config.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/config.py
@@ -448,6 +448,20 @@ def validate_config(cfg):
     if cfg.neftune_noise_alpha is not None and cfg.neftune_noise_alpha <= 0.0:
         raise ValueError("neftune_noise_alpha must be > 0.0")
 
+    if (
+        cfg.adapter
+        and cfg.tokens
+        and (
+            not cfg.lora_modules_to_save
+            or not all(
+                x in cfg.lora_modules_to_save for x in ["embed_tokens", "lm_head"]
+            )
+        )
+    ):
+        raise ValueError(
+            "lora_modules_to_save not properly set yet adding new tokens. Please add `embed_tokens` and `lm_head` to `lora_modules_to_save`."
+        )
+
     # TODO
     # MPT 7b
     # https://github.com/facebookresearch/bitsandbytes/issues/25
diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/models.py b/src/axolotl/utils/models.py
index 022229af8..8cb9e8426 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/models.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/models.py
@@ -136,6 +136,23 @@ def load_tokenizer(cfg):
 
     if cfg.special_tokens:
         for k, val in cfg.special_tokens.items():
+            # check if new special token is not already in tokenizer and
+            # is adapter training to make sure lora_modules_to_save is set
+            if (
+                (getattr(tokenizer, k) is None or getattr(tokenizer, k) != val)
+                and cfg.adapter
+                and (
+                    not cfg.lora_modules_to_save
+                    or not all(
+                        x in cfg.lora_modules_to_save
+                        for x in ["embed_tokens", "lm_head"]
+                    )
+                )
+            ):
+                raise ValueError(
+                    "Please set lora_modules_to_save to ['embed_tokens', 'lm_head'] when using an adapter and changing the special tokens."
+                )
+
             tokenizer.add_special_tokens(
                 {k: AddedToken(val, rstrip=False, lstrip=False, normalized=False)}
             )
diff --git a/tests/test_tokenizers.py b/tests/test_tokenizers.py
index 5c8339194..bfe4f06af 100644
--- a/tests/test_tokenizers.py
+++ b/tests/test_tokenizers.py
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ Test cases for the tokenizer loading
 """
 import unittest
 
+import pytest
+
 from axolotl.utils.dict import DictDefault
 from axolotl.utils.models import load_tokenizer
 
@@ -31,6 +33,40 @@ class TestTokenizers(unittest.TestCase):
         tokenizer = load_tokenizer(cfg)
         assert "Fast" not in tokenizer.__class__.__name__
 
+    def test_special_tokens_modules_to_save(self):
+        # setting special_tokens to new token
+        cfg = DictDefault(
+            {
+                "tokenizer_config": "huggyllama/llama-7b",
+                "adapter": "lora",
+                "special_tokens": {"bos_token": "[INST]"},
+            }
+        )
+        with pytest.raises(
+            ValueError,
+            match=r".*Please set lora_modules_to_save*",
+        ):
+            load_tokenizer(cfg)
+
+        # setting special_tokens but not changing from default
+        cfg = DictDefault(
+            {
+                "tokenizer_config": "huggyllama/llama-7b",
+                "adapter": "lora",
+                "special_tokens": {"bos_token": "<s>"},
+            }
+        )
+        load_tokenizer(cfg)
+
+        # non-adapter setting special_tokens
+        cfg = DictDefault(
+            {
+                "tokenizer_config": "huggyllama/llama-7b",
+                "special_tokens": {"bos_token": "[INST]"},
+            }
+        )
+        load_tokenizer(cfg)
+
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main()
diff --git a/tests/test_validation.py b/tests/test_validation.py
index fabc23da3..12997b023 100644
--- a/tests/test_validation.py
+++ b/tests/test_validation.py
@@ -682,6 +682,43 @@ class ValidationTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
         validate_config(cfg)
 
+    def test_add_tokens_adapter(self):
+        cfg = DictDefault(
+            {"adapter": "qlora", "load_in_4bit": True, "tokens": ["<|imstart|>"]}
+        )
+
+        with pytest.raises(
+            ValueError,
+            match=r".*lora_modules_to_save not properly set yet adding new tokens*",
+        ):
+            validate_config(cfg)
+
+        cfg = DictDefault(
+            {
+                "adapter": "qlora",
+                "load_in_4bit": True,
+                "tokens": ["<|imstart|>"],
+                "lora_modules_to_save": ["embed_tokens"],
+            }
+        )
+
+        with pytest.raises(
+            ValueError,
+            match=r".*lora_modules_to_save not properly set yet adding new tokens*",
+        ):
+            validate_config(cfg)
+
+        cfg = DictDefault(
+            {
+                "adapter": "qlora",
+                "load_in_4bit": True,
+                "tokens": ["<|imstart|>"],
+                "lora_modules_to_save": ["embed_tokens", "lm_head"],
+            }
+        )
+
+        validate_config(cfg)
+
 
 class ValidationWandbTest(ValidationTest):
     """