diff --git a/apps/electron-backend/src/app/events/database/download-catchup-reservation.spec.ts b/apps/electron-backend/src/app/events/database/download-catchup-reservation.spec.ts
index 3b43a19ab..baf3f2731 100644
--- a/apps/electron-backend/src/app/events/database/download-catchup-reservation.spec.ts
+++ b/apps/electron-backend/src/app/events/database/download-catchup-reservation.spec.ts
@@ -180,3 +180,48 @@ it('binds a fresh reservation before a replacement can arrive during the HTTP wa
         await rm(directory, { recursive: true, force: true });
     }
 });
+
+it.each([false, true])(
+    'cleans a failed reservation journal without deleting a replacement (replaced=%s)',
+    async (replaced) => {
+        const directory = await mkdtemp(
+            join(tmpdir(), 'archive-reservation-failure-')
+        );
+        const filePath = join(directory, 'show.ts');
+        const task: DownloadTask = {
+            id: 20,
+            directory,
+            fileName: 'show.ts',
+            url: 'https://provider.test/archive.ts',
+            catchup: {
+                channelName: 'News',
+                startTimestamp: 100,
+                stopTimestamp: 200,
+            },
+        };
+        const failure = new Error('SQLite write failed');
+        jest.mocked(recordArchivePartial).mockImplementationOnce(async () => {
+            if (replaced) {
+                await rename(filePath + '.part', join(directory, 'original'));
+                await writeFile(filePath + '.part', 'foreign bytes');
+            }
+            throw failure;
+        });
+        try {
+            await expect(
+                reserveTarget({} as DownloadsDatabase, task)
+            ).rejects.toBe(failure);
+            if (replaced) {
+                expect(await readFile(filePath + '.part', 'utf8')).toBe(
+                    'foreign bytes'
+                );
+            } else {
+                await expect(lstat(filePath + '.part')).rejects.toMatchObject({
+                    code: 'ENOENT',
+                });
+            }
+        } finally {
+            await rm(directory, { recursive: true, force: true });
+        }
+    }
+);
diff --git a/apps/electron-backend/src/app/events/database/download-catchup-reservation.ts b/apps/electron-backend/src/app/events/database/download-catchup-reservation.ts
index 8040e9b10..2ed6d59f9 100644
--- a/apps/electron-backend/src/app/events/database/download-catchup-reservation.ts
+++ b/apps/electron-backend/src/app/events/database/download-catchup-reservation.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { closeSync, fstatSync, openSync } from 'node:fs';
 import { lstat } from 'node:fs/promises';
+import { cleanupCatchupPartial } from './download-catchup-cleanup';
 import { cleanupStoredCatchupPartial } from './download-catchup-removal';
 import {
     clearArchiveFinalization,
@@ -67,6 +68,13 @@ export async function reserveOwnedCatchupTarget(
     const identity = task.catchupExpectedPartialIdentity;
     if (!identity)
         throw new Error('Archive reservation identity is unavailable');
-    await recordArchivePartial(db, task.id, reservation.path, identity);
+    try {
+        await recordArchivePartial(db, task.id, reservation.path, identity);
+    } catch (error) {
+        // No media bytes have been written. Without a usable journal, remove
+        // only the empty reservation whose identity came from our descriptor.
+        await cleanupCatchupPartial(reservation.path, identity);
+        throw error;
+    }
     return reservation;
 }
diff --git a/docs/architecture/download-manager.md b/docs/architecture/download-manager.md
index a59339f94..34bb702de 100644
--- a/docs/architecture/download-manager.md
+++ b/docs/architecture/download-manager.md
@@ -118,8 +118,11 @@ filesystems without hardlinks. Cleanup remains synchronous after the
 runtime guard, so a completion transition cannot interleave with unlink.
 Missing archive re-downloads claim a fresh reservation instead of inheriting the
 completed file's identity.
-A kill between exclusive copy-file creation and its identity journal commit can
-leave an unowned **empty** destination: no bytes are written before the commit.
+If the initial reservation journal write fails, descriptor-owned cleanup removes
+the empty partial while preserving a replacement. A kill between exclusive
+reservation/copy-file creation and its identity journal commit (or a failure of
+that unjournaled cleanup) can leave an unowned **empty** destination: no bytes
+are written before the commit.
 Recovery preserves that file rather than guessing ownership; Retry uses a
 numbered free destination. SQLite and filesystem creation cannot commit
 atomically, and portable rename cannot guarantee no-clobber publication on the