diff --git a/frontend/src/components/PlexPlayer.session.dom.test.tsx b/frontend/src/components/PlexPlayer.session.dom.test.tsx
index 5593d358..d88d0a16 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/PlexPlayer.session.dom.test.tsx
+++ b/frontend/src/components/PlexPlayer.session.dom.test.tsx
@@ -420,6 +420,24 @@ describe("leaving an item that was played through", () => {
     expect(qc.getQueryData<PlexItemDetail>(qk.plexItem("A", "en"))?.status).not.toBe("watched");
   });
 
+  it("restores nothing when the media ended short of the duration Plex reports", async () => {
+    // Plex's metadata can overrun the file. Ending at 2900 of a reported 3000 is outside the finish
+    // margin, so the duration-based guard alone wrote 2900 back as the resume point: an unwatched
+    // item with a ~99% bar that reopened in its last seconds. The media's own `ended` decides.
+    prefs({ upNext: false });
+    const { progress } = mount({
+      details: { A: item("A"), B: item("B") },
+      sessions: { A: () => Promise.resolve(direct("A")), B: () => new Promise(() => {}) },
+      queue: ["A", "B"],
+    });
+    vi.spyOn(api, "plexSetState").mockRejectedValue(new Error("offline"));
+    await playingAt("/media/A", 2900);
+    endMedia();
+    await screen.findByText("Title B");
+    await tick();
+    expect(progress.mock.calls.filter(([id, , , final]) => id === "A" && final)).toEqual([]);
+  });
+
   it("does restore the position when the refused finish came from the credits skip", async () => {
     // The other caller of the same helper captures a MID-episode position, and there the rollback
     // is the point: without it the viewer loses the stretch they watched. One helper, two callers,
diff --git a/frontend/src/lib/plexPlayerHooks.ts b/frontend/src/lib/plexPlayerHooks.ts
index 90020698..82f002f7 100644
--- a/frontend/src/lib/plexPlayerHooks.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/lib/plexPlayerHooks.ts
@@ -215,6 +215,10 @@ export function usePlexProgress(opts: {
       // Watched badge the server disagreed with (round 5).
       const pos = Math.floor(absRef.current);
       const dur = durationRef.current;
+      // The media's own end, not Plex's reported duration: a file shorter than its metadata (a
+      // configuration this file documents) ends outside the margin below, and restoring THAT
+      // position left an unwatched item with a ~99% bar that reopened in its last seconds.
+      const ended = video?.ended === true;
       void confirmed?.catch(() => {
         finishRefused = true;
         // Restore the resume point the finish replaced — but ONLY where there is one to restore.
@@ -224,7 +228,7 @@ export function usePlexProgress(opts: {
         // performed, through a second route, exactly the write that had just been refused — while
         // the caller's error toast was already on screen saying it had failed (round 6). The
         // credits-skip caller captures a mid-episode position and is unaffected.
-        if (pos > 0 && dur > 0 && pos <= dur - FINISH_MARGIN_S)
+        if (!ended && pos > 0 && dur > 0 && pos <= dur - FINISH_MARGIN_S)
           api.plexProgress(id, pos, dur, true).catch(() => {});
         // `settle` may already have patched the detail to watched / 0 on the way out. Dropping that
         // entry rather than invalidating it: an invalidated query with no observer keeps serving its