diff --git a/src/main/wsl/wsl-orcad-connect-state-snapshot.test.ts b/src/main/wsl/wsl-orcad-connect-state-snapshot.test.ts
index e6a4d47e561..292a9e870d8 100644
--- a/src/main/wsl/wsl-orcad-connect-state-snapshot.test.ts
+++ b/src/main/wsl/wsl-orcad-connect-state-snapshot.test.ts
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ describe.skipIf(process.platform === 'win32')('WSL connect state snapshot', () =
     // The plain read refuses an oversized file too (exit 65), so the connect still fails closed.
     await expect(reader.readActivationRecord(target())).rejects.toThrow()
     expect(mockExec).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(2)
-    expect(reader.snapshot()?.activation.state).toBe('unreadable')
+    expect(reader.snapshot()).toBeNull()
   })
 
   it('falls back to the plain record read when the answer has another shape', async () => {
@@ -118,6 +118,32 @@ describe.skipIf(process.platform === 'win32')('WSL connect state snapshot', () =
   })
 })
 
+describe.skipIf(process.platform === 'win32')('WSL connect state snapshot fallbacks', () => {
+  it('falls back to the plain read when the snapshot command itself fails', async () => {
+    write('.orca-remote/orcad-active.json', serializeOrcadActivationRecord(ACTIVE))
+    mockExec.mockImplementationOnce(async () => {
+      throw new Error('transport closed')
+    })
+    const reader = createWslOrcadConnectStateReader()
+
+    await expect(reader.readActivationRecord(target())).resolves.toEqual(ACTIVE)
+    expect(reader.snapshot()).toBeNull()
+  })
+
+  it('gives no hints when only the fallback read could answer the record', async () => {
+    write('.orca-remote/orcad-active.json', serializeOrcadActivationRecord(ACTIVE))
+    mockExec.mockImplementationOnce(
+      async () =>
+        'UNREADABLE\n__ORCA_WSL_CONNECT_STATE_END__\nABSENT\n__ORCA_WSL_CONNECT_STATE_END__\n' +
+        'ABSENT\n__ORCA_WSL_CONNECT_STATE_END__\nOPEN\n'
+    )
+    const reader = createWslOrcadConnectStateReader()
+
+    await expect(reader.readActivationRecord(target())).resolves.toEqual(ACTIVE)
+    expect(reader.snapshot()).toBeNull()
+  })
+})
+
 describe('parseWslOrcadConnectState', () => {
   it('rejects a truncated answer', () => {
     expect(parseWslOrcadConnectState('ABSENT\n__ORCA_WSL_CONNECT_STATE_END__\n')).toBeNull()
diff --git a/src/main/wsl/wsl-orcad-connect-state-snapshot.ts b/src/main/wsl/wsl-orcad-connect-state-snapshot.ts
index 20115563534..ebbb3a4d234 100644
--- a/src/main/wsl/wsl-orcad-connect-state-snapshot.ts
+++ b/src/main/wsl/wsl-orcad-connect-state-snapshot.ts
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ export function wslOrcadConnectStateCommand(
   paths: SnapshotPaths
 ): string {
   // PRESENT only when the whole file was read; a failed or oversized read is UNREADABLE.
+  // `$(cat)` drops trailing newlines, so raws are not byte-exact; every consumer parses JSON.
   const read = (path: string): string => {
     const file = quotePosixShell(path)
     return (
@@ -126,7 +127,9 @@ export function parseWslOrcadConnectState(output: string): WslOrcadConnectStateS
 export function createWslOrcadConnectStateReader() {
   let snapshot: WslOrcadConnectStateSnapshot | null = null
   return {
-    snapshot: (): WslOrcadConnectStateSnapshot | null => snapshot,
+    // No hints when the record came from the fallback read rather than the snapshot.
+    snapshot: (): WslOrcadConnectStateSnapshot | null =>
+      snapshot?.activation.state === 'unreadable' ? null : snapshot,
     readActivationRecord: async (target: {
       conn: OrcadHostTransport
       host: RemoteHostPlatform
@@ -136,9 +139,12 @@ export function createWslOrcadConnectStateReader() {
     }): Promise<OrcadActivationRecord> => {
       if (!isWindowsRemoteHost(target.host)) {
         const paths = snapshotPaths(target.host, target.remoteHome, target.userDataDir)
-        snapshot = parseWslOrcadConnectState(
-          await execOrcadRemote(target, wslOrcadConnectStateCommand(target.host, paths))
-        )
+        // A failed snapshot only costs the per-file reads; an aborted signal stops those too.
+        const output = await execOrcadRemote(
+          target,
+          wslOrcadConnectStateCommand(target.host, paths)
+        ).catch(() => null)
+        snapshot = output === null ? null : parseWslOrcadConnectState(output)
       }
       const activation = snapshot?.activation
       if (activation?.state === 'ok') {
diff --git a/src/main/wsl/wsl-orcad-deploy.test.ts b/src/main/wsl/wsl-orcad-deploy.test.ts
index e5066ea6258..2286da3acc9 100644
--- a/src/main/wsl/wsl-orcad-deploy.test.ts
+++ b/src/main/wsl/wsl-orcad-deploy.test.ts
@@ -107,14 +107,16 @@ function transport(target: WslOrcadHostTarget): OrcadHostTransport {
   return { getTarget: () => target } as unknown as OrcadHostTransport
 }
 
+const section = (text: string) => `${text}\n__ORCA_WSL_CONNECT_STATE_END__\n`
+let snapshotAnswer = ''
+
 function launch(kernel = '5.15.167.4-microsoft-standard-WSL2', options = {}) {
   mocks.exec.mockImplementation(async (_conn: unknown, command: string) => {
     if (command.includes('uname -r')) {
       mocks.steps.push('uname')
       return `__ORCA_WSL_KERNEL__ ${kernel}\n__ORCA_WSL_HOME__ /home/u\n\n__ORCA_REMOTE_PLATFORM__ Linux x86_64\n\n__ORCA_WSL_LIBC__\nldd (GNU libc) 2.39\n`
     }
-    const end = '\n__ORCA_WSL_CONNECT_STATE_END__\n'
-    return command.includes(end.trim()) ? `ABSENT${end}ABSENT${end}ABSENT${end}OPEN\n` : '4242\n'
+    return command.includes('CONNECT_STATE_END') ? snapshotAnswer : '4242\n'
   })
   return deployAndLaunchWslOrcad('Ubuntu-24.04', {
     holder: holder(),
@@ -194,7 +196,12 @@ describe('deployAndLaunchWslOrcad', () => {
     )
   })
 
-  it('hands its one connect-state read to recovery, adoption and deploy as hints', async () => {
+  it.each([
+    ['nothing pending', 'ABSENT', 'OPEN', { transactionAbsent: true, fenceOpen: true }],
+    ['a held fence', 'ABSENT', 'LOCKED', { transactionAbsent: true, fenceOpen: false }],
+    ['a pending journal', 'PRESENT\n{}', 'OPEN', { transactionAbsent: false, fenceOpen: true }]
+  ])('passes its connect-state read (%s) on as hints', async (_, journal, fence, preRead) => {
+    snapshotAnswer = `${section('ABSENT')}${section(journal)}${section('ABSENT')}${fence}\n`
     const resolve = mocks.resolveContext.getMockImplementation()
     mocks.resolveContext.mockImplementationOnce(async (target, connection, signal, h, known) => {
       const context = await resolve?.(target, connection, signal, h, known)
@@ -202,11 +209,10 @@ describe('deployAndLaunchWslOrcad', () => {
       return { ...context, activationRecord: await known.readActivationRecord(at) }
     })
     await launch()
-    const idle = { transactionAbsent: true, fenceOpen: true }
-    expect(mocks.recover).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expect.anything(), expect.objectContaining(idle))
+    // Recovery reads the host unless both are idle; deploy re-probes a fence seen held.
+    expect(mocks.recover.mock.calls[0][1]).toMatchObject(preRead)
     expect(mocks.adopt.mock.calls[0][3]).toEqual({ state: 'absent' })
-    const record = emptyOrcadActivationRecord()
-    expect(mocks.deploy.mock.calls[0][0].preRead).toEqual({ record, fenceOpen: true })
+    expect(mocks.deploy.mock.calls[0][0].preRead.fenceOpen).toBe(preRead.fenceOpen)
   })
 
   it('applies the SSH census and downgrade admission to the first deploy', async () => {