Provided is a method and system for detecting languishing messages of a storage operating system. Requests to access or manipulate data are received as messages by the storage operating system. The messages are processed after the acquisition of resources. If the resources cannot be acquired, then the messages wait on data structures of the storage operating system. An independent thread of the storage operating system identifies messages that are languishing. Information related to the languishing message is recorded and actions to permit messages to continue waiting or cause storage operating system downtime result.