diff --git a/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/mima-filters/2.5.18.backwards.excludes b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/mima-filters/2.5.18.backwards.excludes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..460960f77e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/mima-filters/2.5.18.backwards.excludes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# #23751 warn if handOffStopMessage not handled
+ProblemFilters.exclude[DirectMissingMethodProblem]("akka.cluster.sharding.ShardRegion#HandOffStopper.this")
+ProblemFilters.exclude[DirectMissingMethodProblem]("akka.cluster.sharding.ShardRegion.handOffStopperProps")
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/resources/reference.conf b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/resources/reference.conf
index 4cf2117278..be9314aea2 100644
--- a/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/resources/reference.conf
+++ b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/resources/reference.conf
@@ -40,6 +40,8 @@ akka.cluster.sharding {
   buffer-size = 100000
 
   # Timeout of the shard rebalancing process.
+  # Additionally, if an entity doesn't handle the stopMessage
+  # after (handoff-timeout - 5.seconds).max(1.second) it will be stopped forcefully
   handoff-timeout = 60 s
 
   # Time given to a region to acknowledge it's hosting a shard.
diff --git a/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/Shard.scala b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/Shard.scala
index dc7d12830c..65730e4e0a 100644
--- a/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/Shard.scala
+++ b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/Shard.scala
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ import akka.actor.Actor
 import akka.util.MessageBufferMap
 
 import scala.concurrent.Future
-import scala.concurrent.duration.FiniteDuration
+import scala.concurrent.duration._
 import akka.cluster.Cluster
 import akka.cluster.ddata.ORSet
 import akka.cluster.ddata.ORSetKey
@@ -233,8 +233,9 @@ private[akka] class Shard(
       log.debug("HandOff shard [{}]", shardId)
 
       if (state.entities.nonEmpty) {
+        val entityHandOffTimeout = (settings.tuningParameters.handOffTimeout - 5.seconds).max(1.seconds)
         handOffStopper = Some(context.watch(context.actorOf(
-          handOffStopperProps(shardId, replyTo, idByRef.keySet, handOffStopMessage))))
+          handOffStopperProps(shardId, replyTo, idByRef.keySet, handOffStopMessage, entityHandOffTimeout))))
 
         //During hand off we only care about watching for termination of the hand off stopper
         context become {
diff --git a/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ShardRegion.scala b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ShardRegion.scala
index d7bd8b190c..f67c6a6686 100644
--- a/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ShardRegion.scala
+++ b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/main/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ShardRegion.scala
@@ -329,11 +329,14 @@ object ShardRegion {
   /**
    * INTERNAL API. Sends stopMessage (e.g. `PoisonPill`) to the entities and when all of
    * them have terminated it replies with `ShardStopped`.
+   * If the entities don't terminate after `handoffTimeout` it will try stopping them forcefully.
    */
-  private[akka] class HandOffStopper(shard: String, replyTo: ActorRef, entities: Set[ActorRef], stopMessage: Any)
-    extends Actor {
+  private[akka] class HandOffStopper(shard: String, replyTo: ActorRef, entities: Set[ActorRef], stopMessage: Any, handoffTimeout: FiniteDuration)
+    extends Actor with ActorLogging {
     import ShardCoordinator.Internal.ShardStopped
 
+    context.setReceiveTimeout(handoffTimeout)
+
     entities.foreach { a ⇒
       context watch a
       a ! stopMessage
@@ -342,6 +345,15 @@ object ShardRegion {
     var remaining = entities
 
     def receive = {
+      case ReceiveTimeout ⇒
+        log.warning("HandOffStopMessage[{}] is not handled by some of the entities of the `{}` shard, " +
+          "stopping the remaining entities.", stopMessage.getClass.getName, shard)
+
+        remaining.foreach {
+          ref ⇒
+            context stop ref
+        }
+
       case Terminated(ref) ⇒
         remaining -= ref
         if (remaining.isEmpty) {
@@ -352,8 +364,8 @@ object ShardRegion {
   }
 
   private[akka] def handOffStopperProps(
-    shard: String, replyTo: ActorRef, entities: Set[ActorRef], stopMessage: Any): Props =
-    Props(new HandOffStopper(shard, replyTo, entities, stopMessage)).withDeploy(Deploy.local)
+    shard: String, replyTo: ActorRef, entities: Set[ActorRef], stopMessage: Any, handoffTimeout: FiniteDuration): Props =
+    Props(new HandOffStopper(shard, replyTo, entities, stopMessage, handoffTimeout)).withDeploy(Deploy.local)
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/akka-cluster-sharding/src/test/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ClusterShardingInternalsSpec.scala b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/test/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ClusterShardingInternalsSpec.scala
index 4529830cea..8472af3cb8 100644
--- a/akka-cluster-sharding/src/test/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ClusterShardingInternalsSpec.scala
+++ b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/test/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ClusterShardingInternalsSpec.scala
@@ -4,14 +4,23 @@
 
 package akka.cluster.sharding
 
-import akka.actor.{ ExtendedActorSystem, PoisonPill, Props }
+import akka.actor.{ Actor, ExtendedActorSystem, NoSerializationVerificationNeeded, PoisonPill, Props }
+import akka.cluster.sharding.ShardCoordinator.Internal.ShardStopped
 import akka.cluster.sharding.ShardCoordinator.ShardAllocationStrategy
-import akka.testkit.AkkaSpec
+import akka.cluster.sharding.ShardRegion.HandOffStopper
+import akka.testkit.{ AkkaSpec, TestProbe }
 import org.mockito.ArgumentMatchers
 import org.mockito.Mockito._
 import org.scalatest.mockito.MockitoSugar
 
-class ClusterShardingInternalsSpec extends AkkaSpec("""akka.actor.provider = "cluster"""") with MockitoSugar {
+import scala.concurrent.duration._
+
+class ClusterShardingInternalsSpec extends AkkaSpec(
+  """
+    |akka.actor.provider = cluster
+    |akka.remote.netty.tcp.port = 0
+    |akka.remote.artery.canonical.port = 0
+    |""".stripMargin) with MockitoSugar {
 
   val clusterSharding = spy(new ClusterSharding(system.asInstanceOf[ExtendedActorSystem]))
 
@@ -39,5 +48,33 @@ class ClusterShardingInternalsSpec extends AkkaSpec("""akka.actor.provider = "cl
         ArgumentMatchers.eq(extractEntityId),
         ArgumentMatchers.eq(extractShardId))
     }
+
+    "HandOffStopper must stop the entity even if the entity doesn't handle handOffStopMessage" in {
+      case class HandOffStopMessage() extends NoSerializationVerificationNeeded
+      class EmptyHandlerActor extends Actor {
+        override def receive: Receive = {
+          case _ ⇒
+        }
+
+        override def postStop(): Unit = {
+          super.postStop()
+        }
+      }
+
+      val probe = TestProbe()
+      val shardName = "test"
+      val emptyHandlerActor = system.actorOf(Props(new EmptyHandlerActor))
+      val handOffStopper = system.actorOf(
+        Props(new HandOffStopper(shardName, probe.ref, Set(emptyHandlerActor), HandOffStopMessage, 10.millis))
+      )
+
+      watch(emptyHandlerActor)
+      expectTerminated(emptyHandlerActor, 1.seconds)
+
+      probe.expectMsg(1.seconds, ShardStopped(shardName))
+
+      watch(handOffStopper)
+      expectTerminated(handOffStopper, 1.seconds)
+    }
   }
 }