Refuse a scan whose root has gone, instead of reporting it empty

FR-PLAT-AND-2, and a silent failure on both platforms. `dr_sync::scan`
stepped over a NotFound or PermissionDenied the way it does for a child
that vanished mid-walk -- correct for a child, wrong for the root, where
it ended the walk, returned Ok with nothing in it, and reported a
successful scan of a library that was no longer there.

A lost root is now its own error. The images under it are marked
Availability::Offline per FR-CAT-9 and no catalog row is deleted;
`library::persist` clears the mark per file as each one is listed again,
so a root that comes back needs no repair step.

Partly satisfied rather than closed, and the gap is worth stating.
The recovery half is real and reachable on Android today, because
`map_status` turns Nextcloud's 403 and 404 into it and Nextcloud is how
a phone actually gets a library in this build. The causes the
requirement names -- revocation, reinstall, a removed card -- are
properties of a persisted tree permission, and there is none: SAF does
not exist here, `SourceRef::Document` is constructed only in test
modules, and `LocalStorage` rejects the variant outright. When SAF
lands it becomes a third producer of this error and nothing above it
changes, which is why the discovery belongs in the connector.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

core/dr-catalog/src/lib.rs

@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ pub use query::{Query, Sort};
 pub use rating::{Judgement, MAX_RATING};
 pub use scan::{DirAction, DirState, EntryAction, ScanOutcome};
 pub use trash::{TrashedImage, TRASH_DIR};
-pub use walk::{ensure_root, scan_root, RootKind, ScanProgress, ScanReport};
+pub use walk::{ensure_root, mark_root_offline, scan_root, RootKind, ScanProgress, ScanReport};
 
 /// One row of the library grid.
 ///

core/dr-catalog/src/walk.rs

@@ -432,7 +432,7 @@ fn bump_generation(conn: &Connection, root: RootId, now: i64) -> Result<i64, Cat
     Ok(next)
 }
 
-/// TRACES: FR-CAT-9
+/// TRACES: FR-CAT-9 | FR-PLAT-AND-2
 /// Mark every image under a root as unreachable.
 ///
 /// The other half of FR-CAT-9's distinction: a source *proven absent* may leave
@@ -445,14 +445,38 @@ fn bump_generation(conn: &Connection, root: RootId, now: i64) -> Result<i64, Cat
 /// the root now claims something about the files that is no longer known to be
 /// true, and only reading the directories again can settle it. Pruning would
 /// skip them all and leave a plugged-in library showing as offline forever.
-fn mark_root_offline(conn: &Connection, root: RootId) -> Result<(), CatalogError> {
+///
+/// # Why the ETag goes with the mtime
+///
+/// The three columns are the same fact told by three kinds of storage: a local
+/// directory proves it is unchanged with its mtime and entry count, and a
+/// remote one proves it with a propagating ETag (ARCH §6.6). Clearing two of
+/// them and leaving the third would disarm the re-listing on exactly the
+/// libraries this is most likely to be called for — a remote scan prunes on
+/// the ETag alone, so a root that came back would be walked, found unchanged
+/// at every level, pruned whole, and left with every row still marked offline
+/// and nothing that would ever clear the mark.
+///
+/// # Public, because losing a root is not only the local walk's business
+///
+/// This began as the private end of [`scan_root`]'s root-failure branches,
+/// which is the only route a library reached through [`Storage`] can take.
+/// The application does not currently take that route at all: it opens
+/// libraries through `dr-sync`'s connectors, so the discovery happens in a
+/// crate that cannot see this one's internals, and the correct response is
+/// identical (FR-PLAT-AND-2). Exported rather than reimplemented beside the
+/// caller that found out — a second copy would be a second thing to remember
+/// when the ETag rule below changes.
+///
+/// [`Storage`]: dr_plat::Storage
+pub fn mark_root_offline(conn: &Connection, root: RootId) -> Result<(), CatalogError> {
     let root_id = root.0 as i64;
     conn.execute(
         "UPDATE images SET availability = ?1 WHERE root_id = ?2 AND availability != ?1",
         rusqlite::params![availability_code(Availability::Offline), root_id],
     )?;
     conn.execute(
-        "UPDATE folders SET mtime = NULL, entry_count = NULL WHERE root_id = ?1",
+        "UPDATE folders SET mtime = NULL, entry_count = NULL, etag = NULL WHERE root_id = ?1",
         [root_id],
     )?;
     Ok(())
@@ -995,6 +1019,40 @@ mod tests {
         );
     }
 
+    /// TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2 | FR-CAT-9
+    #[test]
+    fn marking_a_root_offline_forgets_the_remote_validator_too() {
+        // The half of the marking that only a remote library can notice, and
+        // the reason it has to be here rather than beside the connector: a
+        // remote scan prunes on the propagating ETag alone (ARCH §6.6). Clear
+        // the local mtime and leave the ETag standing and a library that came
+        // back would be walked, found unchanged at every level, pruned whole,
+        // and left with every row still marked offline — with nothing that
+        // would ever clear the mark, because clearing it is something only a
+        // listing can do.
+        //
+        // Written directly because this module never writes an ETag; it is
+        // `ui/dr-ui/src/library.rs`'s scan that does, against the same table.
+        let lib = Library::new("etag-forgotten");
+        lib.file("2026/IMG.CR3", b"raw");
+        lib.scan();
+        lib.conn()
+            .execute(
+                "UPDATE folders SET etag = 'e1' WHERE root_id = ?1",
+                [lib.root.0 as i64],
+            )
+            .expect("etag");
+        assert!(lib.count("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM folders WHERE etag IS NOT NULL") > 0);
+
+        mark_root_offline(lib.conn(), lib.root).expect("mark");
+
+        assert_eq!(
+            lib.count("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM folders WHERE etag IS NOT NULL"),
+            0,
+            "an unreachable library must be re-listed, not pruned as unchanged"
+        );
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn a_root_that_comes_back_is_available_again() {
         // The other half: a drive plugged back in must return the library to

core/dr-sync-folder/src/lib.rs

@@ -216,10 +216,17 @@ impl std::fmt::Debug for FolderBackend {
 impl FolderBackend {
     /// Open the folder at `root`.
     ///
-    /// The directory must exist now. It may stop existing later — a drive
+    /// The directory must exist now, and not existing is
-    /// unplugged, a mount dropped — and that surfaces per-operation as
+    /// [`RemoteError::RootUnavailable`] — the library folder could not be
-    /// [`RemoteError::Network`], which is what puts the app into offline mode
+    /// opened, which is the whole of what this knows. A drive unplugged
-    /// and leaves the catalog readable, exactly as a dead server does.
+    /// between sessions and a path typed wrongly at setup are the same
+    /// observation from here, and both are answered the same way: keep the
+    /// catalog, say which folder, and offer it again (FR-PLAT-AND-2).
+    ///
+    /// A mount dropped *during* a session surfaces per-operation as
+    /// [`RemoteError::Network`] instead, which is what puts the app into
+    /// offline mode and leaves the catalog readable, exactly as a dead server
+    /// does.
     pub fn new(root: impl Into<PathBuf>) -> Result<Self, RemoteError> {
         Self::with_vfs(root, Arc::new(NoVfs))
     }
@@ -232,7 +239,15 @@ impl FolderBackend {
     pub fn with_vfs(root: impl Into<PathBuf>, vfs: Arc<dyn Vfs>) -> Result<Self, RemoteError> {
         let root = root.into();
         if !root.is_dir() {
-            return Err(RemoteError::Configuration(format!(
+            // TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2
+            // Not `Configuration`, which is where this lived while there was
+            // nothing better. The distinction that matters is not "was the
+            // account written wrongly" — which nothing here can know — but
+            // "can this library be opened", and a caller that knows the
+            // library was working yesterday can act on the second answer:
+            // mark what it holds as offline rather than deleting it, and ask
+            // for the folder again (FR-CAT-9).
+            return Err(RemoteError::RootUnavailable(format!(
                 "{} is not a folder",
                 root.display()
             )));

core/dr-sync-folder/src/tests.rs

@@ -48,13 +48,22 @@ fn names(entries: &[RemoteEntry]) -> Vec<String> {
 
 // --- opening --------------------------------------------------------------
 
+/// TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2
 #[test]
-fn a_missing_folder_is_a_configuration_error_not_a_network_one() {
+fn a_missing_folder_is_an_unavailable_root_not_a_network_failure() {
-    // It must not put the app into offline mode: nothing was unreachable, the
+    // Still not offline mode — nothing was unreachable over a wire, and
-    // account names somewhere that is not a folder.
+    // reporting it as a network failure would tell the user to wait for a
+    // connection that is working.
+    //
+    // `RootUnavailable` rather than `Configuration`, because the caller that
+    // has to act on this is the one whose library worked yesterday: an
+    // ejected card is indistinguishable from a mistyped path here, and only
+    // the first of those has a catalog full of ratings to protect.
     let err = FolderBackend::new("/definitely/not/here").unwrap_err();
-    assert!(matches!(err, RemoteError::Configuration(_)), "{err:?}");
+    assert!(matches!(err, RemoteError::RootUnavailable(_)), "{err:?}");
+    assert!(err.indicates_lost_root());
     assert!(!err.indicates_offline());
+    assert!(err.to_string().contains("/definitely/not/here"), "{err}");
 }
 
 // --- listing --------------------------------------------------------------

core/dr-sync/src/error.rs

@@ -61,14 +61,18 @@ pub enum RemoteError {
     /// connector for.
     ///
     /// **Not a network failure and not an auth failure**, which is why it is
-    /// its own variant. A folder library whose directory has been unmounted,
+    /// its own variant. An account naming a backend a cut-down build was not
-    /// or an account naming a backend a cut-down build was not compiled with,
+    /// compiled with, or a path that would leave the library folder, produces
-    /// produces a request that never leaves the process — reporting either as
+    /// a request that never leaves the process — reporting either as `Network`
-    /// `Network` would put the app into offline mode and tell the user their
+    /// would put the app into offline mode and tell the user their connection
-    /// connection is down, and reporting them as `AuthFailed` would send them
+    /// is down, and reporting them as `AuthFailed` would send them to re-enter
-    /// to re-enter a credential that is fine. The message names what is wrong
+    /// a credential that is fine. The message names what is wrong with the
-    /// with the configuration, because that is the only thing that will fix
+    /// configuration, because that is the only thing that will fix it.
-    /// it.
+    ///
+    /// A folder library whose directory is not there was once reported here
+    /// too, and is now [`RootUnavailable`](Self::RootUnavailable): it is not
+    /// something wrong with the configuration, it is the library being gone,
+    /// and only the second of those has a catalog to protect.
     #[error("account misconfigured: {0}")]
     Configuration(String),
 
@@ -105,6 +109,43 @@ pub enum RemoteError {
 
     #[error("operation cancelled")]
     Cancelled,
+
+    /// TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2 | FR-CAT-9
+    /// The library root itself could not be opened.
+    ///
+    /// **The one failure that is about the library rather than about a file in
+    /// it**, and it is a separate variant because every other classification
+    /// of it is wrong in a way that costs the user something:
+    ///
+    /// - As [`NotFound`](Self::NotFound) it is indistinguishable from a folder
+    ///   deleted between listing its parent and reaching it, which the walk
+    ///   correctly steps over — so a whole library going away is reported as a
+    ///   successful scan that found nothing.
+    /// - As [`PermissionDenied`](Self::PermissionDenied) it inherits a message
+    ///   about Nextcloud share permissions and sidecar writes, which is
+    ///   accurate for the case it was written for and nonsense for a tree
+    ///   grant the user revoked in system settings.
+    /// - As [`Network`](Self::Network) it would claim the connection is down,
+    ///   which is a promise that waiting will fix it.
+    ///
+    /// Today this is a Nextcloud root that answers 404 or 403 — deleted, or a
+    /// share withdrawn — or a folder library whose directory is not there. It
+    /// is also, exactly, the shape a revoked Android tree permission will have
+    /// when the Storage Access Framework connector FR-PLAT-AND-1 asks for
+    /// exists: the tree URI still stored, the permission behind it gone, every
+    /// read failing at the root and nowhere else. **That connector is not
+    /// built**, so no SAF grant can be lost yet; what this variant does is put
+    /// the recovery FR-PLAT-AND-2 requires in the one place all three causes
+    /// pass through, so the third needs no new handling above it.
+    ///
+    /// The response is the same for all of them and is the point of the
+    /// variant: mark what the catalog holds as offline, keep every row, and
+    /// say which library and why (FR-CAT-9).
+    ///
+    /// The string is the underlying failure, not a rewrite of it. What the
+    /// user is told is composed where the library's name is known.
+    #[error("the library folder could not be opened: {0}")]
+    RootUnavailable(String),
 }
 
 impl RemoteError {
@@ -150,6 +191,19 @@ impl RemoteError {
     pub fn indicates_offline(&self) -> bool {
         matches!(self, RemoteError::Network(_))
     }
+
+    /// TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2
+    /// Whether the *library* is gone, as opposed to the server or one file.
+    ///
+    /// Kept beside [`Self::indicates_offline`] because the two answer the same
+    /// shape of question and must not be confused. Both put the app into a
+    /// degraded mode that keeps working from the catalog, but they differ in
+    /// what the user is told and in what would end it: an offline library
+    /// comes back when the network does, and an unavailable root comes back
+    /// only when someone grants access again.
+    pub fn indicates_lost_root(&self) -> bool {
+        matches!(self, RemoteError::RootUnavailable(_))
+    }
 }
 
 #[cfg(test)]

core/dr-sync/src/scan.rs

@@ -171,6 +171,37 @@ where
 
         let entries = match backend.list(&dir, None).await {
             Ok(e) => e,
+
+            // TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2 | FR-CAT-9
+            // The root is the one directory the walk may not step over, and
+            // `depth == 0` is the only place it can be — nothing is ever
+            // pushed at that depth but the root itself.
+            //
+            // Below, a directory that has gone is a directory that went away
+            // between its parent being listed and it being reached, and
+            // continuing is right. At the root the identical error means the
+            // *library* is gone, and continuing is catastrophic in a way that
+            // is completely silent: the walk ends, the scan succeeds having
+            // found nothing, and the app reports a healthy library with no new
+            // images while every path in the catalog now points nowhere.
+            //
+            // Refused rather than reclassified. Only these two causes are —
+            // a `Network` failure at the root is still a network failure, and
+            // must stay one or an unplugged network cable would present itself
+            // as a revoked permission and offline mode would never engage.
+            Err(RemoteError::NotFound(_)) if depth == 0 => {
+                return Err(RemoteError::RootUnavailable(format!(
+                    "{root} is no longer there"
+                )));
+            }
+            Err(RemoteError::PermissionDenied) if depth == 0 => {
+                // Deliberately not the variant's own message, which describes
+                // a Nextcloud share that refuses to *update* a sidecar. At the
+                // root nothing has been read at all.
+                return Err(RemoteError::RootUnavailable(format!(
+                    "{root} can no longer be read"
+                )));
+            }
             Err(RemoteError::NotFound(_)) => {
                 // Deleted between listing its parent and reaching it.
                 log::debug!("scan: {dir} vanished during the walk");
@@ -239,6 +270,20 @@ mod tests {
         caps: Capabilities,
         lists: RefCell<usize>,
         probes: RefCell<usize>,
+        /// Directories whose listing fails, and how.
+        ///
+        /// An absent directory is not enough to model this: the fake answers
+        /// an unknown path with an empty listing, which is exactly the shape
+        /// the walk must *not* confuse with a library that has gone away.
+        deny: HashMap<String, Deny>,
+    }
+
+    /// The two ways a real backend refuses a directory that is still named in
+    /// the catalog: it is not there, or it may not be read.
+    #[derive(Clone, Copy)]
+    enum Deny {
+        Missing,
+        Forbidden,
     }
 
     // The fake is single-threaded; tests never share it across threads.
@@ -307,8 +352,15 @@ mod tests {
                 },
                 lists: RefCell::new(0),
                 probes: RefCell::new(0),
+                deny: HashMap::new(),
             }
         }
+
+        /// Make one directory refuse to be listed.
+        fn denying(mut self, path: &str, how: Deny) -> Self {
+            self.deny.insert(path.to_string(), how);
+            self
+        }
     }
 
     #[async_trait]
@@ -325,6 +377,11 @@ mod tests {
             _since: Option<&Validator>,
         ) -> Result<Vec<RemoteEntry>, RemoteError> {
             *self.lists.borrow_mut() += 1;
+            match self.deny.get(dir.as_str()) {
+                Some(Deny::Missing) => return Err(RemoteError::NotFound(dir.to_string())),
+                Some(Deny::Forbidden) => return Err(RemoteError::PermissionDenied),
+                None => {}
+            }
             Ok(self.tree.get(dir.as_str()).cloned().unwrap_or_default())
         }
         async fn dir_validator(&self, dir: &RemotePath) -> Result<Validator, RemoteError> {
@@ -404,6 +461,83 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(r.progress.directories_listed, 3);
     }
 
+    /// TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2 | FR-CAT-9
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn a_root_that_is_gone_is_a_failure_and_not_an_empty_library() {
+        // The silent one. A vanished directory below the root is stepped over,
+        // and before this the root was stepped over on the same terms — which
+        // ended the walk immediately, returned `Ok` with nothing in it, and
+        // let the app report a successful scan of a library that no longer
+        // exists. Nothing in that path is ever told the library went away, so
+        // nothing marks it offline and nothing tells the user.
+        let b =
+            FakeBackend::sample(ChangeDetection::PropagatingEtags).denying("Photos", Deny::Missing);
+        let e = scan(
+            &b,
+            &RemotePath::new("Photos"),
+            &FormatFilter::all(),
+            &HashMap::new(),
+            |_| {},
+        )
+        .await
+        .expect_err("a library that is not there is not a library with no photographs");
+
+        assert!(e.indicates_lost_root(), "got {e:?}");
+        assert!(!e.indicates_offline(), "waiting will not bring this back");
+        assert!(e.to_string().contains("Photos"), "names the library: {e}");
+    }
+
+    /// TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn a_root_that_may_not_be_read_reports_the_root_and_not_the_share_advice() {
+        // A Nextcloud share withdrawn, a directory the process may no longer
+        // read — and the shape a revoked Android tree grant will have when one
+        // can be held at all. Reported as plain `PermissionDenied` it would
+        // have carried that variant's message, which is several lines about a
+        // Nextcloud share refusing to *update* an existing sidecar: advice for
+        // a case where reads work, offered to a user whose reads have stopped
+        // entirely.
+        let b = FakeBackend::sample(ChangeDetection::PropagatingEtags)
+            .denying("Photos", Deny::Forbidden);
+        let e = scan(
+            &b,
+            &RemotePath::new("Photos"),
+            &FormatFilter::all(),
+            &HashMap::new(),
+            |_| {},
+        )
+        .await
+        .expect_err("a root that cannot be read is a failed scan");
+
+        assert!(e.indicates_lost_root(), "got {e:?}");
+        assert!(
+            !e.to_string().contains("sidecar"),
+            "the share-permission advice does not belong here: {e}"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn a_folder_that_goes_away_below_the_root_is_still_stepped_over() {
+        // The other side of the split, and the reason the root is keyed on
+        // depth rather than on the error. A subfolder deleted between its
+        // parent being listed and it being reached is ordinary, and failing
+        // the scan over it would abandon every photograph beside it.
+        let b = FakeBackend::sample(ChangeDetection::PropagatingEtags)
+            .denying("Photos/2025", Deny::Missing);
+        let r = scan(
+            &b,
+            &RemotePath::new("Photos"),
+            &FormatFilter::all(),
+            &HashMap::new(),
+            |_| {},
+        )
+        .await
+        .expect("one folder going away is not the library going away");
+
+        assert_eq!(r.images.len(), 1, "2026 was still walked");
+    }
+
     /// A library with a trash folder holding a soft-deleted image.
     fn with_trash() -> FakeBackend {
         let mut b = FakeBackend::sample(ChangeDetection::PropagatingEtags);

ui/dr-ui/src/library.rs

@@ -80,7 +80,20 @@ pub enum ScanMessage {
     /// amount of string matching on the far side can reliably recover it.
     /// Without the flag a dead connection and a bad password produce the same
     /// banner, which sends the user to re-enter a credential that was fine.
-    Failed { message: String, offline: bool },
+    ///
+    /// `lost_root` is the same idea one step further out, and it is carried
+    /// separately from `offline` rather than folded into it because the two
+    /// end differently. An offline library comes back when the network does,
+    /// with nothing asked of anyone; a library whose root cannot be opened
+    /// comes back only when someone restores access to it — a share put back
+    /// on the server, a drive plugged in, and in time a document tree granted
+    /// again once one can be (FR-PLAT-AND-2). Both show the same grid of what
+    /// is stored locally, and they must not offer the same explanation.
+    Failed {
+        message: String,
+        offline: bool,
+        lost_root: bool,
+    },
 }
 
 /// One decoded thumbnail, ready for the grid.
@@ -1166,6 +1179,7 @@ pub fn spawn_scan(
             let _ = tx.send(ScanMessage::Failed {
                 message: e.message,
                 offline: e.offline,
+                lost_root: e.lost_root,
             });
         }
     });
@@ -1180,6 +1194,7 @@ pub fn spawn_scan(
 struct ScanFailure {
     message: String,
     offline: bool,
+    lost_root: bool,
 }
 
 impl ScanFailure {
@@ -1189,6 +1204,7 @@ impl ScanFailure {
         Self {
             message: message.to_string(),
             offline: false,
+            lost_root: false,
         }
     }
 }
@@ -1197,11 +1213,48 @@ impl From<dr_sync::RemoteError> for ScanFailure {
     fn from(e: dr_sync::RemoteError) -> Self {
         Self {
             offline: e.indicates_offline(),
+            lost_root: e.indicates_lost_root(),
             message: e.to_string(),
         }
     }
 }
 
+/// TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2 | FR-CAT-9
+/// Record that a library can no longer be opened, without losing it.
+///
+/// Called on the worker, before the failure crosses the channel, because this
+/// is where the catalog handle is — and because the marking must be durable
+/// whether or not anyone is left to draw a banner. A process killed between
+/// the failure and the next launch must still come back knowing what it could
+/// not reach.
+///
+/// Nothing is deleted. Every rating, every edit and every row stays exactly
+/// where it was; what changes is that the images now say they are offline, so
+/// the grid can show them as held-not-here rather than as ordinary
+/// photographs whose thumbnails happen to be failing one at a time.
+///
+/// A root with no row yet is the first scan of a library that has never
+/// succeeded, and there is nothing to mark — the failure alone is the whole
+/// story, and the launch screen is where it is told.
+fn mark_library_offline(catalog: &Catalog, root: &str) {
+    let conn = catalog.connection();
+    let root_id: Option<i64> = conn
+        .query_row(
+            "SELECT id FROM roots WHERE label = ?1 AND kind = 'remote'",
+            [root],
+            |r| r.get(0),
+        )
+        .ok();
+    let Some(root_id) = root_id else {
+        log::info!("library {root} has no catalog root yet; nothing to mark offline");
+        return;
+    };
+    match dr_catalog::mark_root_offline(conn, dr_types::RootId(root_id as u64)) {
+        Ok(()) => log::warn!("library {root} is unreachable; its images are marked offline"),
+        Err(e) => log::error!("could not mark {root} offline: {e}"),
+    }
+}
+
 fn run_scan(
     tx: &Sender<ScanMessage>,
     conn: Connection,
@@ -1219,21 +1272,50 @@ fn run_scan(
     let rt = crate::net_runtime::build().map_err(ScanFailure::local)?;
 
     rt.block_on(async {
-        let backend = crate::remote::connect(&conn).map_err(ScanFailure::local)?;
+        // TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2 | FR-CAT-9
+        // Classified rather than flattened to a local failure, because the
+        // removed-card case never gets as far as a request: the folder
+        // connector checks its root when it is constructed, so a library on an
+        // ejected card fails here and not in the walk. Reported as an ordinary
+        // error it left the grid showing a healthy library of images that
+        // could no longer be opened, one silent thumbnail failure at a time.
+        let backend = match crate::remote::connect(&conn) {
+            Ok(b) => b,
+            Err(e) => {
+                if e.indicates_lost_root() {
+                    mark_library_offline(&catalog, &root);
+                }
+                return Err(e.into());
+            }
+        };
 
         // Stored folder ETags, so an unchanged subtree is skipped whole. On a
         // first run this is empty and the walk is complete; on every run after
         // it is what keeps cost proportional to what changed (ARCH §8.4).
         let known = load_folder_etags(&catalog, &root);
 
-        let result = dr_sync::scan(&*backend, &RemotePath::new(&root), &filter, &known, |p| {
+        let scanned = dr_sync::scan(&*backend, &RemotePath::new(&root), &filter, &known, |p| {
             let _ = tx.send(ScanMessage::Progress {
                 directories: p.directories_listed,
                 pruned: p.directories_pruned,
                 images: p.images_found,
             });
         })
-        .await?;
+        .await;
+
+        // TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2 | FR-CAT-9
+        // Written before the failure is reported, not after: the banner is a
+        // consequence of the catalog state and not the other way round, and a
+        // process that dies between the two must come back knowing.
+        let result = match scanned {
+            Ok(r) => r,
+            Err(e) => {
+                if e.indicates_lost_root() {
+                    mark_library_offline(&catalog, &root);
+                }
+                return Err(e.into());
+            }
+        };
 
         persist(&catalog, &root, &result).map_err(ScanFailure::local)?;
 
@@ -1326,13 +1408,27 @@ fn persist(
             .ok()
         });
 
+        // TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2 | FR-CAT-9
+        // The `availability` arm is what ends an offline library, and it does
+        // it one photograph at a time. 3 is `Availability::Offline` and 0 is
+        // `MetadataOnly`, the same code this statement inserts new rows with —
+        // so a row that was marked offline when the root became unreachable is
+        // returned to exactly the state a fresh scan would have given it, and
+        // a row that was never marked is not touched at all.
+        //
+        // Conditional rather than a blanket reset for the same reason
+        // `dr_catalog::walk` restores per file rather than per root: the only
+        // thing that may clear "I could not reach this" is having reached it,
+        // and this statement runs precisely once per file the scan listed.
         tx.execute(
             "INSERT INTO images(root_id, folder_id, source_ref, format, file_size,
                                 availability, metadata_state, added_at)
              VALUES (?1, ?2, ?3, ?4, ?5, 0, 1, ?6)
              ON CONFLICT(root_id, source_ref) DO UPDATE SET
                  file_size = excluded.file_size,
-                 folder_id = excluded.folder_id",
+                 folder_id = excluded.folder_id,
+                 availability = CASE WHEN images.availability = 3
+                                     THEN 0 ELSE images.availability END",
             rusqlite::params![
                 root_id,
                 folder_id,

ui/dr-ui/src/library_ui.rs

@@ -270,6 +270,22 @@ pub struct LibraryController {
     /// judgement, and carrying the old one over would report a server down
     /// that was never contacted.
     reachability: RefCell<dr_sync::Reachability>,
+    /// TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2 | FR-CAT-9
+    /// Why the library folder itself could not be opened, if it could not.
+    ///
+    /// Beside [`Self::reachability`] rather than inside it, because
+    /// `dr_sync::Reachability` models *the server*, and it is deliberately
+    /// unmoved by a refusal — a forbidden file must not report the network as
+    /// down (see its own tests). A revoked tree grant is a refusal, so folding
+    /// it in would either break that rule or need an exception carved through
+    /// it.
+    ///
+    /// Set only by a scan that failed at the root, and cleared only by one
+    /// that succeeded. Both states drive the same banner as being offline
+    /// does, because what the user can do is the same — carry on with what is
+    /// stored on the device — but the sentence under it is different, and so
+    /// is what will end it.
+    root_lost: RefCell<Option<String>>,
     /// TRACES: FR-NC-6a
     /// Drains the pin downloader. Held so a second pin replaces the timer
     /// rather than leaving two draining the same finished channel.
@@ -372,6 +388,7 @@ impl LibraryController {
             sidecar_timer: RefCell::new(None),
             generation: std::cell::Cell::new(0),
             reachability: RefCell::new(dr_sync::Reachability::new()),
+            root_lost: RefCell::new(None),
             outbox_timer: RefCell::new(None),
             outbox_maybe_dirty: std::cell::Cell::new(true),
             geometry_timer: RefCell::new(None),
@@ -443,10 +460,15 @@ impl LibraryController {
         }
     }
 
-    /// TRACES: FR-CAT-9
+    /// TRACES: FR-CAT-9 | FR-PLAT-AND-2
-    /// Whether the app currently believes the server is unreachable.
+    /// Whether the library cannot be reached, for either of the two reasons.
+    ///
+    /// One answer rather than two because every caller asks it for the same
+    /// purpose: to decide whether starting a transfer is worth attempting.
+    /// A revoked grant fails that question exactly as a dead network does, and
+    /// a sync started against it would spend its retries proving it.
     pub fn is_offline(&self) -> bool {
-        self.reachability.borrow().is_offline()
+        self.reachability.borrow().is_offline() || self.root_lost.borrow().is_some()
     }
 
     /// Whether the grid is narrowed to locally-stored originals.
@@ -941,6 +963,17 @@ fn drain_scan(
                         {
                             log::info!("back online");
                         }
+                        // TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2
+                        // And it is the only evidence that clears a lost root,
+                        // for the same reason: the walk began by listing the
+                        // root, so a scan that finished is a root that opened.
+                        // The rows it marked offline are restored one at a
+                        // time by `library::persist`, as each file is listed
+                        // again — this only stops the banner claiming what is
+                        // no longer true.
+                        if ctl.root_lost.borrow_mut().take().is_some() {
+                            log::info!("library folder is readable again");
+                        }
                         refresh_offline(&w, ctl);
 
                         // An incremental rescan lists almost nothing, so
@@ -995,7 +1028,11 @@ fn drain_scan(
                         stop(&ctl.scan_timer);
                         return;
                     }
-                    ScanMessage::Failed { message, offline } => {
+                    ScanMessage::Failed {
+                        message,
+                        offline,
+                        lost_root,
+                    } => {
                         log::warn!("scan failed: {message}");
                         w.set_library_scanning(false);
                         // Recorded as a failure even where it is only the
@@ -1004,7 +1041,26 @@ fn drain_scan(
                         // stopped because of it.
                         job.fail(message.clone());
 
-                        if offline {
+                        if lost_root {
+                            // TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2 | FR-CAT-9
+                            // The library folder itself could not be opened —
+                            // a share withdrawn, an unplugged drive, and in
+                            // time a revoked document-tree grant. The worker
+                            // has already marked every row under this root
+                            // offline and deleted none of them; this is the
+                            // half the user sees.
+                            //
+                            // Tested first because it is also true that the
+                            // library is unreachable, and the generic answer
+                            // would be reached first and be less useful.
+                            *ctl.root_lost.borrow_mut() = Some(message);
+                            refresh_offline(&w, ctl);
+                            // Same reason as the offline arm below: without
+                            // this a launch that began with a revoked grant
+                            // shows an empty grid, which is the one impression
+                            // this whole path exists to avoid.
+                            open_catalog_for_offline(&w, ctl, &catalog_path, &coll_ctl);
+                        } else if offline {
                             // Not an error state. The catalog from the last
                             // successful scan is still on disk and still
                             // accurate for everything already indexed, so the
@@ -1585,17 +1641,35 @@ fn scope_is_pinned(catalog: &Catalog, images: &[dr_types::ImageId]) -> bool {
 /// which is what keeps it testable without a display server.
 fn refresh_offline(window: &AppWindow, ctl: &Rc<LibraryController>) {
     let reach = ctl.reachability.borrow();
-    let offline = reach.is_offline();
+    // TRACES: FR-PLAT-AND-2
+    // A lost root wins over a dead network, and does so even when both are
+    // true — which is the ordinary case, since the scan that discovered the
+    // grant was gone was also the last request the app made. Reported the
+    // other way round the user is told to wait for a connection that is
+    // working, and the thing that would actually fix it is never mentioned.
+    let lost = ctl.root_lost.borrow();
+    let offline = reach.is_offline() || lost.is_some();
 
     window.set_library_offline(offline);
-    window.set_library_offline_reason(reach.reason().unwrap_or_default().into());
+    window.set_library_offline_reason(match lost.as_deref() {
+        Some(why) => why.into(),
+        None => reach.reason().unwrap_or_default().into(),
+    });
     window.set_library_offline_since(
-        reach
+        // A duration is what a network outage has and a revoked permission
-            .offline_for(std::time::Instant::now())
+        // does not: "for 4 minutes" invites waiting, and waiting is precisely
-            .map(describe_duration)
+        // what will not help here.
-            .unwrap_or_default()
+        if lost.is_some() {
-            .into(),
+            slint::SharedString::default()
+        } else {
+            reach
+                .offline_for(std::time::Instant::now())
+                .map(describe_duration)
+                .unwrap_or_default()
+                .into()
+        },
     );
+    drop(lost);
 
     // A stale scan error under an offline banner reports one problem twice.
     if offline {