diff --git a/ui/dr-ui/src/faces.rs b/ui/dr-ui/src/faces.rs
index a323b3a..6efc3a6 100644
--- a/ui/dr-ui/src/faces.rs
+++ b/ui/dr-ui/src/faces.rs
@@ -33,7 +33,14 @@ use dr_thumbs::{ThumbSize, ThumbStore};
 use dr_types::settings::FaceSettings;
 use dr_types::ImageId;
 
-/// The tier faces are found on. See the module note.
+/// The tier a stored face crop is cut from. See the module note.
+///
+/// **No longer the tier faces are *found* on**, and the distinction is the
+/// whole of `docs/faces.md` §7c: 1024 is below [`dr_face::MIN_DETECT_EDGE`], so
+/// detection refuses it. Cutting a crop out of a proxy this size is fine — the
+/// face has already been located, and the crop only has to be looked at.
+/// Finding one at this size is what returned 0.078 faces per image where the
+/// same photographs returned 1.82.
 pub const FACE_TIER: ThumbSize = ThumbSize::Large;
 
 /// Progress from an indexing sweep.
@@ -120,11 +127,15 @@ pub fn faces_outstanding(
 #[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq, Default)]
 pub struct IndexAudit {
     pub coverage: faces::Coverage,
-    /// Outstanding and ready: the proxy exists, so a sweep would do these now.
+    /// Outstanding, with a proxy already on disk.
+    ///
+    /// **Not "ready to index".** It was, when a pass existed that detected on
+    /// the stored proxy; that proxy is 1024 and detection now refuses it
+    /// (§7c), so these need a fetch exactly like the others do. Kept as a
+    /// separate number only because it says something true about the cache.
     pub ready: u64,
-    /// Outstanding with no proxy on disk, so the whole-library pass will fetch
-    /// one. Still reported separately because it is the expensive half — these
-    /// cost a range request each, and the ones above cost nothing.
+    /// Outstanding with no proxy on disk. Costs a range request, same as the
+    /// ones above now do.
     pub awaiting_proxy: u64,
 }
 
@@ -151,13 +162,14 @@ impl IndexAudit {
             "{}/{} images indexed ({shown}), {} face(s), {} image(s) with none",
             c.indexed, c.images, c.faces, c.without_faces,
         );
-        if self.ready > 0 {
-            s.push_str(&format!("; {} ready to index", self.ready));
-        }
-        if self.awaiting_proxy > 0 {
-            // Not a blocker any more, and it must not read like one: the
-            // whole-library pass fetches these rather than skipping them.
-            s.push_str(&format!("; {} to fetch", self.awaiting_proxy));
+        // One number, not two. The split used to matter because one of the
+        // two passes could only do the images that already had a proxy; now
+        // that detection refuses that proxy's size, both halves cost the same
+        // fetch and telling the user "169 ready, 0 to fetch" only implies a
+        // distinction that no longer decides anything.
+        let outstanding = self.ready + self.awaiting_proxy;
+        if outstanding > 0 {
+            s.push_str(&format!("; {outstanding} to index"));
         }
         s
     }
@@ -382,6 +394,26 @@ pub fn spawn_store_face_sweep(
                 }
             };
 
+        // Nothing below this point can succeed, so do not pretend to try.
+        //
+        // This pass detects on what the store holds, and the store's largest
+        // tier is `FACE_TIER` — 1024, which is below the floor. Left to run it
+        // would fetch nothing, decode every proxy it has, and report every
+        // single image as failed: twenty thousand refusals that all say the
+        // same thing. The pass is not repairable here either, because there is
+        // no larger tier for it to read; the pixels it needs have to come off
+        // the server, which is `library::spawn_face_sweep`'s job.
+        if (FACE_TIER.edge()) < dr_face::MIN_DETECT_EDGE {
+            log::warn!(
+                "face sweep: the local store's largest tier is {}px, below the {}px \
+                 detection floor — use the library pass, which fetches its own pixels",
+                FACE_TIER.edge(),
+                dr_face::MIN_DETECT_EDGE,
+            );
+            finish_empty(&tx);
+            return;
+        }
+
         let wanted = match faces_outstanding(&catalog, &store, &model_id) {
             Ok(w) => w,
             Err(e) => {