diff --git a/media-scrape/src/store.ts b/media-scrape/src/store.ts
index 59243f5..39560a1 100644
--- a/media-scrape/src/store.ts
+++ b/media-scrape/src/store.ts
@@ -582,7 +582,8 @@ export class ScrapeStore {
                 `SELECT * FROM media
                  WHERE preview_hash IS NULL
                    AND lower(COALESCE(url, '') || ' ' || COALESCE(play_url, '')) LIKE '%discordapp%'
-                   AND (preview_error IS NOT NULL
+                   AND ((preview_error IS NOT NULL
+                         AND preview_error NOT LIKE 'unavailable after recovery%')
                         OR (preview_suspect IS NOT NULL
                             AND (preview_retry_at IS NULL OR preview_retry_at <= ?)))
                  ORDER BY id LIMIT ?`
@@ -594,13 +595,24 @@ export class ScrapeStore {
         this.db.prepare("UPDATE media SET preview_error = NULL WHERE id = ?").run(id);
     }
 
+    /** The recovery task refreshed and retried this row; it is genuinely unavailable now. */
+    markUnavailableAfterRecovery(id: number): void {
+        this.db
+            .prepare(
+                "UPDATE media SET preview_error = 'unavailable after recovery', preview_suspect = NULL, preview_retry_at = NULL WHERE id = ?"
+            )
+            .run(id);
+    }
+
     discordPreviewFailureCount(): number {
         const row = this.db
             .prepare(
                 `SELECT COUNT(*) AS count FROM media
                  WHERE preview_hash IS NULL
                    AND lower(COALESCE(url, '') || ' ' || COALESCE(play_url, '')) LIKE '%discordapp%'
-                   AND (preview_error IS NOT NULL OR preview_suspect IS NOT NULL)`
+                   AND ((preview_error IS NOT NULL
+                         AND preview_error NOT LIKE 'unavailable after recovery%')
+                        OR preview_suspect IS NOT NULL)`
             )
             .get() as { count: number | null } | undefined;
         return row?.count ?? 0;
diff --git a/poc/src/media.ts b/poc/src/media.ts
index 5b8924c..0777305 100644
--- a/poc/src/media.ts
+++ b/poc/src/media.ts
@@ -453,9 +453,14 @@ export class MediaService {
                         await this.engine.previewBatch(scrapeId, cleared.length);
                         for (const row of cleared) {
                             const after = store.getMedia(row.id);
-                            if (after?.preview_hash) this.recover.recovered++;
-                            else if (after?.preview_suspect) this.recover.deferred++;
-                            else this.recover.gone++;
+                            if (after?.preview_hash) {
+                                this.recover.recovered++;
+                            } else {
+                                // Refreshed URL plus a fetch still failed: the file is gone. Mark it
+                                // so later recovery runs do not retry it again.
+                                if (after?.preview_suspect) store.markUnavailableAfterRecovery(row.id);
+                                this.recover.gone++;
+                            }
                         }
                     }
                 } finally {