diff --git a/modules/juce_audio_formats/codecs/juce_WavAudioFormat.cpp b/modules/juce_audio_formats/codecs/juce_WavAudioFormat.cpp
index 058ff733fe..7461dcd480 100644
--- a/modules/juce_audio_formats/codecs/juce_WavAudioFormat.cpp
+++ b/modules/juce_audio_formats/codecs/juce_WavAudioFormat.cpp
@@ -927,12 +927,6 @@ public:
 
     ~WavAudioFormatWriter()
     {
-        if ((bytesWritten & 1) != 0) // pad to an even length
-        {
-            ++bytesWritten;
-            output->writeByte (0);
-        }
-
         writeHeader();
     }
 
@@ -972,6 +966,20 @@ public:
         return true;
     }
 
+    bool flush() override
+    {
+        const int64 lastWritePos = output->getPosition();
+        writeHeader();
+
+        if (output->setPosition (lastWritePos))
+            return true;
+
+        // if this fails, you've given it an output stream that can't seek! It needs
+        // to be able to seek back to write the header
+        jassertfalse;
+        return false;
+    }
+
 private:
     MemoryBlock tempBlock, bwavChunk, axmlChunk, smplChunk, instChunk, cueChunk, listChunk;
     uint64 lengthInSamples, bytesWritten;
@@ -998,13 +1006,21 @@ private:
 
     void writeHeader()
     {
-        using namespace WavFileHelpers;
-        const bool seekedOk = output->setPosition (headerPosition);
-        (void) seekedOk;
+        if ((bytesWritten & 1) != 0) // pad to an even length
+        {
+            ++bytesWritten;
+            output->writeByte (0);
+        }
 
-        // if this fails, you've given it an output stream that can't seek! It needs
-        // to be able to seek back to write the header
-        jassert (seekedOk);
+        using namespace WavFileHelpers;
+
+        if (headerPosition != output->getPosition() && ! output->setPosition (headerPosition))
+        {
+            // if this fails, you've given it an output stream that can't seek! It needs to be
+            // able to seek back to go back and write the header after the data has been written.
+            jassertfalse;
+            return;
+        }
 
         const size_t bytesPerFrame = numChannels * bitsPerSample / 8;
         uint64 audioDataSize = bytesPerFrame * lengthInSamples;
diff --git a/modules/juce_audio_formats/format/juce_AudioFormatWriter.cpp b/modules/juce_audio_formats/format/juce_AudioFormatWriter.cpp
index cd1ffc9a73..ac9e79c722 100644
--- a/modules/juce_audio_formats/format/juce_AudioFormatWriter.cpp
+++ b/modules/juce_audio_formats/format/juce_AudioFormatWriter.cpp
@@ -183,6 +183,11 @@ bool AudioFormatWriter::writeFromAudioSampleBuffer (const AudioSampleBuffer& sou
     return writeFromFloatArrays (chans, numSourceChannels, numSamples);
 }
 
+bool AudioFormatWriter::flush()
+{
+    return false;
+}
+
 //==============================================================================
 class AudioFormatWriter::ThreadedWriter::Buffer   : private TimeSliceClient
 {
diff --git a/modules/juce_audio_formats/format/juce_AudioFormatWriter.h b/modules/juce_audio_formats/format/juce_AudioFormatWriter.h
index ceb54dabe5..12292b860f 100644
--- a/modules/juce_audio_formats/format/juce_AudioFormatWriter.h
+++ b/modules/juce_audio_formats/format/juce_AudioFormatWriter.h
@@ -91,8 +91,18 @@ public:
                                 to pass it into the method.
         @param numSamples       the number of samples to write
     */
-    virtual bool write (const int** samplesToWrite,
-                        int numSamples) = 0;
+    virtual bool write (const int** samplesToWrite, int numSamples) = 0;
+
+    /** Some formats may support a flush operation that makes sure the file is in a
+        valid state before carrying on.
+        If supported, this means that by calling flush periodically when writing data
+        to a large file, then it should still be left in a readable state if your program
+        crashes.
+        It goes without saying that this method must be called from the same thread that's
+        calling write()!
+        If the format supports flushing and the operation succeeds, this returns true.
+    */
+    virtual bool flush();
 
     //==============================================================================
     /** Reads a section of samples from an AudioFormatReader, and writes these to