Two case studies were conducted in the Shennan mining area of Shaanxi Province, China to evaluate the surrounding rock deformation and stress evolution in pre-driven longwall recovery rooms. These studies mainly monitored the surrounding rock deformation and coal pillar stress in the recovery rooms of the N1206 panel of 2⁻² coal seam at Ningtiaota Coal Mine and the 15205 panel of 5⁻² coal seam at Hongliulin Coal Mine. The monitoring results showed that the surrounding rock deformation of the main recovery room and the coal pillar stress in the N1206 and 15205 panels began to increase significantly when the face was 36 m and 42 m away from the terminal line, respectively. After the face entered the main recovery room, the maximum roof-to-floor convergence in the N1206 and 15205 panels was 348.03 mm and 771.24 mm, respectively, and the coal pillar stresses increased more than 5 MPa and 7 MPa, respectively. In addition, analysis of the periodic weighting data showed that the main roof break position of the N1206 and 15205 panels after the longwall face entered the main recovery room was − 3.8 m and − 8.2 m, respectively. This research shows that when the main roof breaks above the coal pillar, the surrounding rock deformation of the main recovery room and the coal pillar stress increase sharply. The last weighting is the key factor affecting the stability of the main recovery room and the coal pillar; main roof breaks at disadvantageous positions are the main cause of the support crushing accidents.