diff --git a/Dockerfile.builder b/Dockerfile.builder
index a685950b..8371546d 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.builder
+++ b/Dockerfile.builder
@@ -87,6 +87,22 @@ RUN $ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest/bin/sdkmanager --sdk_root=$ANDROID_HOME \
 # Set NDK environment variable
 ENV NDK_HOME=$ANDROID_HOME/ndk/$NDK_VERSION
 
+# Gradle distribution. `tauri android init` regenerates gen/android with a
+# wrapper pointing at services.gradle.org, so every Android job would otherwise
+# download ~130MB of Gradle at build time — slow, and a hard failure when the
+# CDN hiccups ("Unexpected end of file from server"). Ship the distribution in
+# the image instead; scripts/sync-android-sources.sh repoints the regenerated
+# wrapper at this local copy. Keep GRADLE_VERSION in sync with the version
+# Tauri's generated wrapper requests.
+ENV GRADLE_VERSION=8.14.3 \
+    GRADLE_HOME=/opt/gradle/gradle-8.14.3
+RUN mkdir -p /opt/gradle/dist && \
+    wget -q "https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-${GRADLE_VERSION}-bin.zip" \
+        -O "/opt/gradle/dist/gradle-${GRADLE_VERSION}-bin.zip" && \
+    unzip -q "/opt/gradle/dist/gradle-${GRADLE_VERSION}-bin.zip" -d /opt/gradle && \
+    "$GRADLE_HOME/bin/gradle" --version
+ENV PATH="$GRADLE_HOME/bin:$PATH"
+
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Desktop packaging tools — kept in a trailing layer ON PURPOSE so that adding
 # or changing a packaging tool doesn't invalidate the expensive apt/rust/Android
diff --git a/scripts/sync-android-sources.sh b/scripts/sync-android-sources.sh
index 1a00c822..47095242 100755
--- a/scripts/sync-android-sources.sh
+++ b/scripts/sync-android-sources.sh
@@ -118,4 +118,26 @@ if [ -d "$RES_SRC" ]; then
           "$RES_DST"/drawable*/ic_launcher_background.xml
 fi
 
+# Gradle wrapper distribution. `tauri android init` regenerates the wrapper
+# pointing at services.gradle.org, so each build downloads ~130MB of Gradle —
+# slow, and a hard failure when the CDN drops the connection mid-transfer
+# ("Unexpected end of file from server"), which is what broke the release APK
+# job. The builder image ships the matching distribution under /opt/gradle/dist,
+# so when it's present repoint the wrapper at that local zip and build offline.
+# Outside the image (dev machines) the properties file is left untouched and the
+# wrapper downloads as usual.
+WRAPPER_PROPS="$PROJECT_ROOT/src-tauri/gen/android/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties"
+if [ -f "$WRAPPER_PROPS" ]; then
+    WANTED_VERSION="$(sed -n 's#.*/gradle-\([0-9.]*\)-\(bin\|all\)\.zip.*#\1#p' "$WRAPPER_PROPS")"
+    LOCAL_DIST="/opt/gradle/dist/gradle-${WANTED_VERSION}-bin.zip"
+    if [ -n "$WANTED_VERSION" ] && [ -f "$LOCAL_DIST" ]; then
+        # distributionUrl is a java.util.Properties value: ':' must stay escaped.
+        sed -i "s#^distributionUrl=.*#distributionUrl=file\\\\:///opt/gradle/dist/gradle-${WANTED_VERSION}-bin.zip#" \
+            "$WRAPPER_PROPS"
+        echo "  Gradle wrapper -> local distribution ($WANTED_VERSION, offline)"
+    elif [ -n "$WANTED_VERSION" ]; then
+        echo "  Gradle wrapper: $WANTED_VERSION not in image, will download"
+    fi
+fi
+
 echo "✓ Android sources synced successfully"