diff --git a/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-index-pass.test.ts b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-index-pass.test.ts
index c32eec59a96..5f0fc01f88e 100644
--- a/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-index-pass.test.ts
+++ b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-index-pass.test.ts
@@ -98,25 +98,42 @@ it('resumes into a grown transcript instead of re-reading it whole', async () =>
 
 // Nothing is recorded about what a deadline cut off, because being owed is a
 // fact about the row: the file is read on the next pass for the same reason it
-// was owed on this one.
+// was owed on this one. The one thing handed back is how many there were, since
+// a candidate with no row yet is a backlog no query can see.
 it('leaves what it ran out of time for owed, with nothing written down', async () => {
   const all = await candidates()
   const cut = await runSessionSearchIndexPass(store, all, { rows: rows(), overdue: () => true })
 
-  expect(cut.outOfTime).toBe(true)
+  expect(cut).toMatchObject({ outOfTime: true, left: 1 })
   expect(store.files()).toHaveLength(1)
   const second = await passOverAll()
   expect(second.stats.fullParses).toBe(1)
   expect(store.files()).toHaveLength(2)
 })
 
+// A deferred candidate whose row already says `due` is in `stateCounts().due`,
+// which the status adds `left` to; counting it here would report it twice.
+it('leaves a deferred candidate out of the count when its row already says due', async () => {
+  await passOverAll()
+  for (const row of store.files()) {
+    store.setFileState(row.path, 'due')
+  }
+
+  const cut = await runSessionSearchIndexPass(store, await candidates(), {
+    rows: rows(),
+    overdue: () => true
+  })
+
+  expect(cut).toMatchObject({ outOfTime: true, left: 0 })
+})
+
 // The deadline is never applied before the pass has read anything, so a single
 // transcript larger than one deadline is read alone rather than starved.
 it('reads one file even when the deadline has already expired', async () => {
   const only = (await candidates()).slice(0, 1)
   const alone = await runSessionSearchIndexPass(store, only, { rows: rows(), overdue: () => true })
 
-  expect(alone.outOfTime).toBe(false)
+  expect(alone).toMatchObject({ outOfTime: false, left: 0 })
   expect(store.files()).toHaveLength(1)
 })
 
diff --git a/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-index-pass.ts b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-index-pass.ts
index 05ccea1a314..fc0ed0bff22 100644
--- a/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-index-pass.ts
+++ b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-index-pass.ts
@@ -26,21 +26,29 @@ export type SessionSearchIndexPassOptions = {
 /**
  * Reads whatever the decide step says is owed, until the deadline.
  *
- * Nothing is recorded about what it did not reach. A candidate the deadline cut
- * off is still owed on the next pass for the same reason it was owed on this
- * one — its row says so — so there is no queue to keep, nothing to bound, and
- * nothing to drop. What the reads themselves leave behind is written by the
- * index consumer onto the rows.
+ * Nothing is recorded about what it did not reach beyond `left`, a count the
+ * caller reports and nothing acts on. A candidate the deadline cut off is still
+ * owed on the next pass for the same reason it was owed on this one — its row
+ * says so — so there is no queue to keep, nothing to bound, and nothing to
+ * drop. What the reads themselves leave behind is written by the index consumer
+ * onto the rows.
+ *
+ * `left` is what makes the backlog sayable: a candidate with no row yet, or one
+ * whose row does not say it is owed, is counted by no `due` query, so without
+ * this the status has no way to tell an index that holds everything from one
+ * that has barely started. Candidates whose row is already `due` are left out,
+ * because the status adds `left` to that same count.
  */
 export async function runSessionSearchIndexPass(
   store: SessionSearchStore,
   candidates: readonly SessionFileCandidate[],
   options: SessionSearchIndexPassOptions
-): Promise<{ stats: SessionParseStats; outOfTime: boolean }> {
+): Promise<{ stats: SessionParseStats; outOfTime: boolean; left: number }> {
   const stats = createSessionParseStats()
   const cutoffMs = store.retentionCutoff
   let read = 0
   let outOfTime = false
+  let left = 0
   for (const candidate of candidates) {
     throwIfAiVaultScanCancelled(options.signal)
     const path = candidate.file.path
@@ -61,6 +69,11 @@ export async function runSessionSearchIndexPass(
     // count of what a pass left is worth more than the microseconds.
     outOfTime ||= read > 0 && options.overdue?.() === true
     if (outOfTime) {
+      // A `due` row is already in `stateCounts().due`, which the status adds
+      // this to; counting it here would report the same file twice.
+      if (row?.state !== 'due') {
+        left += 1
+      }
       continue
     }
     // The clock the deadline reads is one the owner may close behind: the read
@@ -80,5 +93,5 @@ export async function runSessionSearchIndexPass(
       )
     }
   }
-  return { stats, outOfTime }
+  return { stats, outOfTime, left }
 }
diff --git a/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-indexer.test.ts b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-indexer.test.ts
index 5985628ba2d..bda9cce8de1 100644
--- a/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-indexer.test.ts
+++ b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-indexer.test.ts
@@ -329,7 +329,9 @@ it('reads what one pass has time for and finishes the rest on the next', async (
     )
   }
   await indexer?.reconcile()
-  expect(indexer?.status()).toMatchObject({ filesIndexed: 3, filesDue: 0 })
+  // Two of the four went unread, and neither has a row, so the count it hands
+  // back is the only thing that can say the index is not done.
+  expect(indexer?.status()).toMatchObject({ filesIndexed: 3, filesDue: 2, phase: 'indexing' })
 
   await indexer?.reconcile()
   expect(sessionsMatching('deadlined')).toHaveLength(4)
@@ -926,14 +928,24 @@ it('stops the opening sweep at its deadline and drains the rest over the passes
     await writeClaudeTranscript(transcriptPath(session), [`backlogged session ${index}`], session)
   }
   await newIndexer(readsPerPass(2)).start()
-  expect(indexer?.status().filesIndexed).toBe(2)
+  // A sweep that ran out of time did not sweep the machine: it says so rather
+  // than stamping itself complete and reporting the three it never opened as
+  // nothing at all.
+  expect(indexer?.status()).toMatchObject({
+    filesIndexed: 2,
+    filesDue: 3,
+    phase: 'indexing',
+    lastSweepCompletedAt: null
+  })
 
   await nextCycle()
-  expect(indexer?.status().filesIndexed).toBe(4)
+  expect(indexer?.status()).toMatchObject({ filesIndexed: 4, filesDue: 1, phase: 'indexing' })
+  expect(indexer?.status().lastSweepCompletedAt).toBeNull()
 
   await nextCycle()
   expect(sessionsMatching('backlogged')).toHaveLength(5)
-  expect(indexer?.status()).toMatchObject({ filesIndexed: 5, filesDue: 0 })
+  expect(indexer?.status()).toMatchObject({ filesIndexed: 5, filesDue: 0, phase: 'current' })
+  expect(indexer?.status().lastSweepCompletedAt).not.toBeNull()
 })
 
 // The sweep cadence, with nobody asking for it: a file outside the recency
diff --git a/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-indexer.ts b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-indexer.ts
index d70d3718f9c..364647cb164 100644
--- a/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-indexer.ts
+++ b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-indexer.ts
@@ -32,7 +32,11 @@ export type SessionSearchIndexStatus = {
   phase: SessionSearchIndexPhase
   /** Rows whose content matches the file at the stat the row records. */
   filesIndexed: number
-  /** Rows owed a whole read: a declined append, or a window that widened. */
+  /**
+   * Files owed a read: rows the index holds and must re-read (a declined
+   * append, a window that widened), plus candidates the last pass ran out of
+   * time for, which have no row to be counted by.
+   */
   filesDue: number
   /** Rows whose last read did not commit. */
   filesFailed: number
@@ -64,8 +68,10 @@ export type SessionSearchIndexStatus = {
  *   `session-search-deleted-sources.ts`.
  * - `cyclesSinceSweep` and `sweepNext`, which are about the timer rather than
  *   about any file, and mean nothing to a second process.
- * - `degradedRoots`, `lastReconcileAt` and `lastSweepCompletedAt`: what the last
- *   pass observed, held so `status()` can answer between passes.
+ * - `degradedRoots`, `lastReconcileAt`, `lastSweepCompletedAt` and `left`: what
+ *   the last pass observed, held so `status()` can answer between passes.
+ *   `left` cannot be a row: a candidate the deadline never reached has no row
+ *   yet, which is exactly why no query can see the backlog.
  * - `lastCounts`, the one cached query result, read only after `close()` so that
  *   describing what happened does not reopen a handle the owner has finished
  *   with. While the indexer is open every call re-queries.
@@ -99,6 +105,8 @@ export class SessionSearchIndexer {
   private degradedRoots: SessionSearchDegradedRoot[] = []
   private lastReconcileAt: number | null = null
   private lastSweepCompletedAt: number | null = null
+  /** Candidates the last completed pass was owed and did not read. */
+  private left = 0
   private lastCounts: SessionSearchStateCounts | null = null
   private cyclesSinceSweep = 0
   private sweepNext = false
@@ -192,7 +200,7 @@ export class SessionSearchIndexer {
     return {
       phase: this.phase(settled),
       filesIndexed: settled.current,
-      filesDue: settled.due,
+      filesDue: settled.due + this.left,
       filesFailed: settled.failed,
       degradedRoots: this.degradedRoots.map((root) => ({ ...root })),
       lastReconcileAt: this.lastReconcileAt,
@@ -234,11 +242,11 @@ export class SessionSearchIndexer {
   }
 
   /**
-   * `current` is a claim, so it takes all three: no row owed a read, no row
-   * whose last read failed, and a whole sweep that finished. `idle` is the
-   * other end of it — an indexer nobody started has not promised to index
-   * anything, and calling that `current` would claim an index nobody built is
-   * up to date.
+   * `current` is a claim, so it takes all of it: nothing owed a read by a row,
+   * nothing owed a read that has no row yet, no row whose last read failed,
+   * and a whole sweep that finished. `idle` is the other end of it
+   * — an indexer nobody started has not promised to index anything, and calling
+   * that `current` would claim an index nobody built is up to date.
    */
   private phase(counts: SessionSearchStateCounts): SessionSearchIndexPhase {
     if (this.closed) {
@@ -252,6 +260,10 @@ export class SessionSearchIndexer {
     if (this.degradedRoots.length > 0 || counts.failed > 0) {
       return 'degraded'
     }
+    // Work the rows cannot show: a candidate the deadline cut off has no row.
+    if (this.left > 0) {
+      return 'indexing'
+    }
     return counts.due === 0 && this.lastSweepCompletedAt !== null ? 'current' : 'indexing'
   }
 
@@ -303,12 +315,20 @@ export class SessionSearchIndexer {
       this.degradedRoots = result.degradedRoots
       this.previousRootsWithFiles = result.rootsWithFiles
       this.lastReconcileAt = this.clock.now()
+      // Replaced, not accumulated: it is this pass's measure of the backlog, and
+      // a pass that read everything it was owed measures zero.
+      this.left = result.left
       // A backlog outside the recency window is only visible to a sweep, so a
       // pass that ran out of time asks for one. It is self-limiting: the first
       // pass that finishes its reads hands the interval back to cycles.
       this.sweepNext ||= result.outOfTime
       if (full) {
-        this.lastSweepCompletedAt = this.lastReconcileAt
+        // A sweep the deadline stopped with candidates still unread did not
+        // sweep the machine, and stamping it would let `current` be claimed
+        // over a backlog no row can account for.
+        if (!result.outOfTime) {
+          this.lastSweepCompletedAt = this.lastReconcileAt
+        }
         this.cyclesSinceSweep = 0
         return
       }
diff --git a/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-pass.ts b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-pass.ts
index d4f36015226..bf1ef00e780 100644
--- a/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-pass.ts
+++ b/src/main/ai-vault-search/session-search-pass.ts
@@ -75,6 +75,14 @@ export type SessionSearchPassResult = {
    * making progress only on the periodic sweep every five minutes.
    */
   outOfTime: boolean
+  /**
+   * Candidates this pass decided were owed a read and did not read.
+   *
+   * Zero unless the deadline stopped the reads. Not a queue: it is the size of
+   * the backlog at the moment the pass gave up, reported so the caller can say
+   * so, and every one of them is owed again on the next pass by its row.
+   */
+  left: number
 }
 
 /**
@@ -113,6 +121,7 @@ export async function runSessionSearchPass(
 
     let completed = true
     let outOfTime = false
+    let left = 0
     const rows = new Map(store.files().map((row) => [row.path, row]))
     try {
       const read = await runSessionSearchIndexPass(store, swept.candidates, {
@@ -121,6 +130,7 @@ export async function runSessionSearchPass(
         overdue: args.overdue
       })
       outOfTime = read.outOfTime
+      left = read.left
     } catch (error) {
       if (!signal?.aborted) {
         throw error
@@ -183,7 +193,8 @@ export async function runSessionSearchPass(
         unlistable
       ),
       completed,
-      outOfTime
+      outOfTime,
+      left
     }
   })
 }