diff --git a/ts/receiver/closedGroups.ts b/ts/receiver/closedGroups.ts
index b0d2e5dc2..eebc7c0b9 100644
--- a/ts/receiver/closedGroups.ts
+++ b/ts/receiver/closedGroups.ts
@@ -203,7 +203,7 @@ export async function handleNewClosedGroup(
       // Enable typing:
       maybeConvo.set('isKickedFromGroup', false);
       maybeConvo.set('left', false);
-      maybeConvo.set('lastJoinedTimestamp', Date.now());
+      maybeConvo.set('lastJoinedTimestamp', _.toNumber(envelope.timestamp));
     } else {
       log.warn(
         'Ignoring a closed group message of type NEW: the conversation already exists'
@@ -242,6 +242,12 @@ export async function handleNewClosedGroup(
   // the sending pipeline needs to know from GroupUtils when a message is for a medium group
   await ClosedGroup.updateOrCreateClosedGroup(groupDetails);
 
+  // ClosedGroup.updateOrCreateClosedGroup will mark the activeAt to Date.now if it's active
+  // But we need to override this value with the sent timestamp of the message creating this group for us.
+  // Having that timestamp set will allow us to pickup incoming group update which were sent between
+  // envelope.timestamp and Date.now(). And we need to listen to those (some might even remove us)
+  convo.set('lastJoinedTimestamp', _.toNumber(envelope.timestamp));
+
   await convo.commit();
   // sanity checks validate this
   // tslint:disable: no-non-null-assertion