diff --git a/src/transformers/cache_utils.py b/src/transformers/cache_utils.py
index b5ef6669d8c5d1..fe1aa2aadaf2c5 100644
--- a/src/transformers/cache_utils.py
+++ b/src/transformers/cache_utils.py
@@ -374,31 +374,28 @@ def update(
         Return:
             A tuple containing the updated key and value states.
         """
-        
         attention_mask = cache_kwargs.get("attention_mask")
 
-        # make sure the parts that are not seen are masked as well
-        
+        # place each cache on the correct layer device, not optimised?
         if self.seen_tokens == 0:
             self.key_cache[layer_idx] = self.key_cache[layer_idx].to(key_states.device)
             self.value_cache[layer_idx] = self.value_cache[layer_idx].to(value_states.device)
             self.causal_4d_mask = self.causal_4d_mask.to(value_states.device)
         
         if attention_mask is not None:
+            # if the past length changes then we do have a problem
             _, _, query_length, past_length = attention_mask.shape
-            self.causal_4d_mask[:,:,self.seen_tokens:self.seen_tokens + key_states.shape[-2],:past_length] = attention_mask
-            attention_mask = self.causal_4d_mask[:,:, self.seen_tokens:self.seen_tokens + key_states.shape[-2],:]
+            self.causal_4d_mask[:,:,self.seen_tokens:self.seen_tokens + query_length,:past_length] = attention_mask
+            attention_mask = self.causal_4d_mask[:,:, self.seen_tokens:self.seen_tokens + query_length,:]
         
-        # Update the cache
-        if len(self.key_cache) + 1 == self.max_sequence_length:
-            # let's overwrite and roll the cache to support going beyond?
-            raise ValueError("Your are going outside the allocated cache")
-        else:
-            self.key_cache[layer_idx][:, :, self.seen_tokens: self.seen_tokens + key_states.shape[-2]] = key_states
-            self.value_cache[layer_idx][:, :, self.seen_tokens: self.seen_tokens + key_states.shape[-2]] = value_states
+        self.key_cache[layer_idx][:, :, self.seen_tokens: self.seen_tokens + key_states.shape[-2]] = key_states
+        self.value_cache[layer_idx][:, :, self.seen_tokens: self.seen_tokens + key_states.shape[-2]] = value_states
 
         # Update the number of seen tokens
         if layer_idx == self.num_layers - 1:
+            # Update the cache
+            if self.seen_tokens + key_states.shape[-2] > self.max_sequence_length:
+                raise ValueError("Your are going outside the allocated cache")
             self.seen_tokens += key_states.shape[-2]
             
         return self.key_cache[layer_idx], self.value_cache[layer_idx], attention_mask