diff --git a/src/praisonai-desktop/frontend/tests/engine-down.test.mjs b/src/praisonai-desktop/frontend/tests/engine-down.test.mjs
index f2c2f7b16f..f641b68af0 100644
--- a/src/praisonai-desktop/frontend/tests/engine-down.test.mjs
+++ b/src/praisonai-desktop/frontend/tests/engine-down.test.mjs
@@ -77,6 +77,37 @@ for (const [id, label] of [['settings', 'Settings'], ['logsBtn', 'Engine log'],
   });
 }
 
+test('Export does not fake a backup when the engine is unreachable', async () => {
+  const writes = [];
+  const dom = new JSDOM(HTML, {
+    runScripts: 'dangerously', resources: 'usable', url: ORIGIN + '/',
+    beforeParse(w) {
+      w.__TAURI__ = { core: { invoke: async () => ({
+        state: 'failed', reason: 'Engine crashed',
+        detail: 'exited before it was ready', tail: 'traceback' }) },
+        event: { listen: async () => () => {} } };
+      w.fetch = async () => { throw new TypeError('fetch failed'); };
+      w.requestAnimationFrame = (cb) => setTimeout(cb, 0);
+      w.navigator.clipboard = { writeText: async (t) => { writes.push(t); } };
+      w.confirm = () => true; w.prompt = () => 'x'; w.alert = () => {}; w.scrollTo = () => {};
+      w.matchMedia = () => ({ matches: false, addEventListener() {}, removeEventListener() {} });
+      Object.defineProperty(w.HTMLElement.prototype, 'scrollIntoView', { value() {} });
+    },
+  });
+  const { window } = dom;
+  await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 400));
+
+  await window.runAction({ action: 'export' });
+  await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 20));
+
+  assert.deepEqual(writes, [],
+    'the clipboard was written despite the export failing -- a stale paste would masquerade as a backup');
+  assert.ok(window.document.getElementById('toast'),
+    'the failed export said nothing');
+  assert.match(window.document.getElementById('toast').textContent, /did not run|could not/i,
+    'the failed export produced no error message');
+});
+
 test('no unhandled rejection escapes any of the three', async () => {
   const b = await bootFailed();
   for (const id of ['settings', 'logsBtn', 'search']) {
diff --git a/src/praisonai-desktop/ui/index.html b/src/praisonai-desktop/ui/index.html
index 9e67f1c625..f5ae3c5028 100644
--- a/src/praisonai-desktop/ui/index.html
+++ b/src/praisonai-desktop/ui/index.html
@@ -1900,10 +1900,23 @@ <h2>Fine-tune a model</h2>
 
 async function runAction(def){
   if(def.confirm && !await askConfirm(def.confirm.message,{ok:'Continue'})) return;
+  // A failed export that says nothing is worse than no export: the user pastes
+  // a stale clipboard into a file and believes they have a backup. Every branch
+  // is a bare fetch that rejects when the engine is unreachable, so report it.
+  try{ await runActionInner(def); }
+  catch(e){ toast('That did not run: '+(e && e.message ? e.message : e)); }
+}
+async function runActionInner(def){
   if(def.action==='export'){
-    const {chats}=await (await fetch('http://127.0.0.1:'+PORT+'/chats')).json();
+    const cr=await fetch('http://127.0.0.1:'+PORT+'/chats');
+    if(!cr.ok) throw new Error('Could not read conversations ('+cr.status+')');
+    const {chats}=await cr.json();
     const all=[];
-    for(const c of chats) all.push(await (await fetch('http://127.0.0.1:'+PORT+'/chats/'+c.id)).json());
+    for(const c of chats){
+      const dr=await fetch('http://127.0.0.1:'+PORT+'/chats/'+c.id);
+      if(!dr.ok) throw new Error('Could not read a conversation ('+dr.status+')');
+      all.push(await dr.json());
+    }
     // A sandboxed webview blocks a download the page starts itself, so the
     // export goes to the clipboard and says so rather than failing silently.
     await navigator.clipboard.writeText(JSON.stringify(all,null,2));