diff --git a/awx/main/expect/isolated_manager.py b/awx/main/expect/isolated_manager.py
index 0830b390c7..a5f64d6e57 100644
--- a/awx/main/expect/isolated_manager.py
+++ b/awx/main/expect/isolated_manager.py
@@ -187,28 +187,7 @@ class IsolatedManager(object):
                                                       self.private_data_dir,
                                                       extravars=extravars)
             status, rc = runner_obj.status, runner_obj.rc
-
-            # discover new events and ingest them
-            events_path = self.path_to('artifacts', self.ident, 'job_events')
-
-            # it's possible that `events_path` doesn't exist *yet*, because runner
-            # hasn't actually written any events yet (if you ran e.g., a sleep 30)
-            # only attempt to consume events if any were rsynced back
-            if os.path.exists(events_path):
-                for event in set(os.listdir(events_path)) - self.handled_events:
-                    path = os.path.join(events_path, event)
-                    if os.path.exists(path):
-                        event_data = json.load(
-                            open(os.path.join(events_path, event), 'r')
-                        )
-                        event_data.setdefault(self.event_data_key, self.instance.id)
-                        dispatcher.dispatch(event_data)
-                        self.handled_events.add(event)
-
-                        # handle artifacts
-                        if event_data.get('event_data', {}).get('artifact_data', {}):
-                            self.instance.artifacts = event_data['event_data']['artifact_data']
-                            self.instance.save(update_fields=['artifacts'])
+            self.consume_events(dispatcher)
 
             last_check = time.time()
 
@@ -220,6 +199,10 @@ class IsolatedManager(object):
             with open(rc_path, 'r') as f:
                 rc = int(f.readline())
 
+        # consume events one last time just to be sure we didn't miss anything
+        # in the final sync
+        self.consume_events(dispatcher)
+
         # emit an EOF event
         event_data = {
             'event': 'EOF',
@@ -230,6 +213,41 @@ class IsolatedManager(object):
 
         return status, rc
 
+    def consume_events(self, dispatcher):
+        # discover new events and ingest them
+        events_path = self.path_to('artifacts', self.ident, 'job_events')
+
+        # it's possible that `events_path` doesn't exist *yet*, because runner
+        # hasn't actually written any events yet (if you ran e.g., a sleep 30)
+        # only attempt to consume events if any were rsynced back
+        if os.path.exists(events_path):
+            for event in set(os.listdir(events_path)) - self.handled_events:
+                path = os.path.join(events_path, event)
+                if os.path.exists(path):
+                    try:
+                        event_data = json.load(
+                            open(os.path.join(events_path, event), 'r')
+                        )
+                    except json.decoder.JSONDecodeError:
+                        # This means the event we got back isn't valid JSON
+                        # that can happen if runner is still partially
+                        # writing an event file while it's rsyncing
+                        # these event writes are _supposed_ to be atomic
+                        # but it doesn't look like they actually are in
+                        # practice
+                        # in this scenario, just ignore this event and try it
+                        # again on the next sync
+                        pass
+                    event_data.setdefault(self.event_data_key, self.instance.id)
+                    dispatcher.dispatch(event_data)
+                    self.handled_events.add(event)
+
+                    # handle artifacts
+                    if event_data.get('event_data', {}).get('artifact_data', {}):
+                        self.instance.artifacts = event_data['event_data']['artifact_data']
+                        self.instance.save(update_fields=['artifacts'])
+
+
     def cleanup(self):
         # If the job failed for any reason, make a last-ditch effort at cleanup
         extravars = {
diff --git a/awx/main/tasks.py b/awx/main/tasks.py
index c21b4ae554..50c7509187 100644
--- a/awx/main/tasks.py
+++ b/awx/main/tasks.py
@@ -1187,14 +1187,17 @@ class BaseTask(object):
             if self.instance.is_isolated() is True:
                 module_args = None
                 if 'module_args' in params:
+                    # if it's adhoc, copy the module args
                     module_args = ansible_runner.utils.args2cmdline(
                         params.get('module_args'),
                     )
+                else:
+                    # otherwise, it's a playbook, so copy the project dir
+                    copy_tree(cwd, os.path.join(private_data_dir, 'project'))
                 shutil.move(
                     params.pop('inventory'),
                     os.path.join(private_data_dir, 'inventory')
                 )
-                copy_tree(cwd, os.path.join(private_data_dir, 'project'))
                 ansible_runner.utils.dump_artifacts(params)
                 manager_instance = isolated_manager.IsolatedManager(
                     cancelled_callback=lambda: self.update_model(self.instance.pk).cancel_flag
diff --git a/awx/playbooks/run_isolated.yml b/awx/playbooks/run_isolated.yml
index 8e3ed15cc8..157d561635 100644
--- a/awx/playbooks/run_isolated.yml
+++ b/awx/playbooks/run_isolated.yml
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
         src: "{{src}}"
         dest: "{{dest}}"
 
-    - stat: path="{{src}}/env/ssh_key"
+    - local_action: stat path="{{src}}/env/ssh_key"
       register: key
 
     - name: create a named pipe for secret environment data