diff --git a/src/main/index.ts b/src/main/index.ts
index d4ea8115..a3c5180c 100644
--- a/src/main/index.ts
+++ b/src/main/index.ts
@@ -98,6 +98,7 @@ import {
 import {
   clearStaleHarnessAuthCookies,
   desktopHarnessUrl,
+  isAbortedNavigationCode,
   isAbortedNavigationError,
   shouldLoadHarnessUrl
 } from './window-navigation'
@@ -387,6 +388,14 @@ function installMainWindowRendererRecovery(window: BrowserWindow): void {
   })
   webContents.on('did-fail-load', (_event, errorCode, errorDescription, validatedURL, isMainFrame) => {
     if (!isMainFrame) return
+    // A programmatic switch (restart, recovery page, Safe Mode toggle,
+    // second-instance reopen) calls webContents.stop() before the next
+    // loadFile/loadURL, and Electron reports the cancelled in-flight load as
+    // did-fail-load with ERR_ABORTED (-3). That is a benign supersession —
+    // openHarness treats it the same way at the loadURL await site — so do not
+    // spend a recovery reload (or the shared reload budget) on a navigation
+    // nobody cancelled on purpose.
+    if (isAbortedNavigationCode(errorCode)) return
     clearProfileBootConfirmation()
     // The harness web server is local; a failure to reach it is almost
     // always the renderer dropping, not a real network error. Surface the
diff --git a/src/main/window-navigation.ts b/src/main/window-navigation.ts
index c080bbd6..22e896f2 100644
--- a/src/main/window-navigation.ts
+++ b/src/main/window-navigation.ts
@@ -83,3 +83,14 @@ export function isAbortedNavigationError(error: unknown): boolean {
     /(?:^|\s)ERR_ABORTED\s*\(-3\)(?:\s|$)/.test(navigationError.message)
   )
 }
+
+/**
+ * Chromium reports a cancelled in-flight load as `did-fail-load` with the
+ * numeric net error ERR_ABORTED (-3). `webContents.stop()` followed by a new
+ * load — restart flows, recovery pages, Safe Mode toggles, second-instance
+ * reopens — cancels the previous navigation that way, so the code above is not
+ * enough for the event shape, which carries `errorCode: number`.
+ */
+export function isAbortedNavigationCode(errorCode: number): boolean {
+  return errorCode === -3
+}
diff --git a/test/window-navigation.test.ts b/test/window-navigation.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e9d078a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/window-navigation.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
+import {
+  isAbortedNavigationCode,
+  isAbortedNavigationError
+} from '../src/main/window-navigation'
+
+describe('aborted-navigation detection', () => {
+  it('recognizes the ERR_ABORTED numeric code reported by did-fail-load', () => {
+    expect(isAbortedNavigationCode(-3)).toBe(true)
+  })
+
+  it('does not treat real load failures as aborted navigations', () => {
+    // -105 is ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED, -106 is ERR_INTERNET_DISCONNECTED,
+    // 0 means "no error" — none of them is a superseded load.
+    expect(isAbortedNavigationCode(-105)).toBe(false)
+    expect(isAbortedNavigationCode(-106)).toBe(false)
+    expect(isAbortedNavigationCode(0)).toBe(false)
+  })
+
+  it('recognizes the Error shapes thrown by webContents.loadURL', () => {
+    expect(isAbortedNavigationError({ code: 'ERR_ABORTED' })).toBe(true)
+    expect(isAbortedNavigationError({ errno: -3 })).toBe(true)
+    expect(isAbortedNavigationError(new Error('ERR_ABORTED (-3)'))).toBe(true)
+    expect(isAbortedNavigationError(new Error('ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED (-105)'))).toBe(false)
+  })
+})