diff --git a/apps/desktop/electron/media-range.test.ts b/apps/desktop/electron/media-range.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..989c248d38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/desktop/electron/media-range.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+import { mkdtemp, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises'
+import { tmpdir } from 'node:os'
+import path from 'node:path'
+
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
+
+import { buildLocalMediaResponse, mediaMimeFor, parseByteRange } from './media-range'
+
+describe('media-range: parseByteRange', () => {
+  it('parses open, closed and suffix ranges', () => {
+    expect(parseByteRange('bytes=0-99', 1000)).toEqual({ start: 0, end: 99 })
+    expect(parseByteRange('bytes=500-', 1000)).toEqual({ start: 500, end: 999 })
+    expect(parseByteRange('bytes=-100', 1000)).toEqual({ start: 900, end: 999 })
+    // An end past EOF is clamped (Chromium commonly sends bytes=0-).
+    expect(parseByteRange('bytes=990-5000', 1000)).toEqual({ start: 990, end: 999 })
+  })
+
+  it('ignores multi-range requests as a whole (RFC 7233 allows answering 200 instead of multipart)', () => {
+    expect(parseByteRange('bytes=0-99,500-599', 1000)).toBeNull()
+  })
+
+  it('returns null without a usable Range and unsatisfiable when out of bounds', () => {
+    expect(parseByteRange(null, 1000)).toBeNull()
+    expect(parseByteRange('', 1000)).toBeNull()
+    expect(parseByteRange('items=0-1', 1000)).toBeNull()
+    expect(parseByteRange('bytes=1000-', 1000)).toBe('unsatisfiable')
+    expect(parseByteRange('bytes=50-10', 1000)).toBe('unsatisfiable')
+    expect(parseByteRange('bytes=0-', 0)).toBe('unsatisfiable')
+  })
+
+  it('maps media extensions to mime types', () => {
+    expect(mediaMimeFor('/x/a.MP4')).toBe('video/mp4')
+    expect(mediaMimeFor('/x/a.mp3')).toBe('audio/mpeg')
+    expect(mediaMimeFor('/x/a.bin')).toBe('application/octet-stream')
+  })
+})
+
+describe('media-range: buildLocalMediaResponse', () => {
+  async function fixture() {
+    const dir = await mkdtemp(path.join(tmpdir(), 'media-range-'))
+    const file = path.join(dir, 'clip.mp4')
+    const bytes = Buffer.from(Array.from({ length: 1000 }, (_, i) => i % 256))
+
+    await writeFile(file, bytes)
+
+    return { bytes, file }
+  }
+
+  it('serves the whole file with Accept-Ranges when no Range is given', async () => {
+    const { bytes, file } = await fixture()
+    const res = await buildLocalMediaResponse(file)
+
+    expect(res.status).toBe(200)
+    expect(res.headers.get('accept-ranges')).toBe('bytes')
+    expect(res.headers.get('content-length')).toBe('1000')
+    expect(res.headers.get('content-type')).toBe('video/mp4')
+    expect(Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer()).equals(bytes)).toBe(true)
+  })
+
+  it('serves a 206 slice with Content-Range for a Range request (seeking)', async () => {
+    const { bytes, file } = await fixture()
+    const res = await buildLocalMediaResponse(file, { rangeHeader: 'bytes=100-199' })
+
+    expect(res.status).toBe(206)
+    expect(res.headers.get('content-range')).toBe('bytes 100-199/1000')
+    expect(res.headers.get('content-length')).toBe('100')
+    expect(Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer()).equals(bytes.subarray(100, 200))).toBe(true)
+  })
+
+  it('serves the tail for an open-ended range and 416 when unsatisfiable', async () => {
+    const { file } = await fixture()
+    const tail = await buildLocalMediaResponse(file, { rangeHeader: 'bytes=900-' })
+
+    expect(tail.status).toBe(206)
+    expect(tail.headers.get('content-range')).toBe('bytes 900-999/1000')
+    expect((await tail.arrayBuffer()).byteLength).toBe(100)
+
+    const bad = await buildLocalMediaResponse(file, { rangeHeader: 'bytes=5000-' })
+
+    expect(bad.status).toBe(416)
+    expect(bad.headers.get('content-range')).toBe('bytes */1000')
+  })
+
+  it('serves the whole file (200) for a multi-range request and 404 for a missing file', async () => {
+    const { file } = await fixture()
+    const multi = await buildLocalMediaResponse(file, { rangeHeader: 'bytes=0-99,500-599' })
+
+    expect(multi.status).toBe(200)
+    expect(multi.headers.get('content-length')).toBe('1000')
+    expect((await multi.arrayBuffer()).byteLength).toBe(1000)
+
+    const missing = await buildLocalMediaResponse(path.join(path.dirname(file), 'nope.mp4'))
+
+    expect(missing.status).toBe(404)
+  })
+
+  it('answers HEAD with headers only', async () => {
+    const { file } = await fixture()
+    const res = await buildLocalMediaResponse(file, { method: 'HEAD', rangeHeader: 'bytes=0-9' })
+
+    expect(res.status).toBe(206)
+    expect(res.headers.get('content-length')).toBe('10')
+    expect(res.body).toBeNull()
+  })
+})
diff --git a/apps/desktop/electron/media-range.ts b/apps/desktop/electron/media-range.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a78fe7170c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/desktop/electron/media-range.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,170 @@
+import { createReadStream, promises as fsp } from 'node:fs'
+import path from 'node:path'
+import { Readable } from 'node:stream'
+
+/**
+ * Range-aware responses for local audio/video served through `hermes-media://stream/…`.
+ *
+ * The media protocol used to delegate local files to `net.fetch(file://…)` and forward the
+ * renderer's `Range` header, expecting a `206 Partial Content` back. In practice Electron's
+ * file:// loader ignores `Range` and always answers `200` with the whole body and no
+ * `Accept-Ranges`, so Chromium reports `video.seekable` as `[0, 0]`: the progress bar cannot be
+ * dragged and any seek snaps back to 0. Short clips hide this (they buffer fully within a
+ * second and seeking inside buffered data works), long recordings expose it immediately.
+ *
+ * This module answers the request itself: it parses `Range`, slices the file with
+ * `createReadStream`, and returns `206` with `Content-Range` / `Accept-Ranges` (plus `416` for
+ * unsatisfiable ranges, header-only `HEAD` responses, and `404` when the file is gone).
+ */
+
+const MEDIA_MIME: Record<string, string> = {
+  '.aac': 'audio/aac',
+  '.avi': 'video/x-msvideo',
+  '.flac': 'audio/flac',
+  '.m4a': 'audio/mp4',
+  '.m4v': 'video/mp4',
+  '.mkv': 'video/x-matroska',
+  '.mov': 'video/quicktime',
+  '.mp3': 'audio/mpeg',
+  '.mp4': 'video/mp4',
+  '.oga': 'audio/ogg',
+  '.ogg': 'audio/ogg',
+  '.ogv': 'video/ogg',
+  '.opus': 'audio/ogg',
+  '.wav': 'audio/wav',
+  '.webm': 'video/webm'
+}
+
+export function mediaMimeFor(filePath: string): string {
+  return MEDIA_MIME[path.extname(filePath).toLowerCase()] || 'application/octet-stream'
+}
+
+export interface ByteRange {
+  start: number
+  /** Inclusive. */
+  end: number
+}
+
+/**
+ * Parse `Range: bytes=a-b` / `bytes=a-` / `bytes=-n`.
+ *
+ * Multi-range requests (any comma in the header) are deliberately ignored as a whole — RFC 7233
+ * lets a server answer `200` with the full representation instead of `multipart/byteranges`,
+ * and Chromium's media stack only ever sends a single range. Returns `null` when there is no
+ * usable Range header (serve the whole file) and `'unsatisfiable'` when the range starts beyond
+ * the end of the file (answer 416).
+ */
+export function parseByteRange(header: string | null | undefined, size: number): ByteRange | null | 'unsatisfiable' {
+  if (!header || header.includes(',')) {
+    return null
+  }
+
+  const m = /^\s*bytes\s*=\s*(\d*)\s*-\s*(\d*)\s*$/i.exec(header)
+
+  if (!m || (m[1] === '' && m[2] === '')) {
+    return null
+  }
+
+  if (size <= 0) {
+    return 'unsatisfiable'
+  }
+
+  let start: number
+  let end: number
+
+  if (m[1] === '') {
+    // Suffix range: the last n bytes.
+    const suffix = Math.min(Number(m[2]), size)
+
+    if (suffix <= 0) {
+      return 'unsatisfiable'
+    }
+
+    start = size - suffix
+    end = size - 1
+  } else {
+    start = Number(m[1])
+    end = m[2] === '' ? size - 1 : Math.min(Number(m[2]), size - 1)
+  }
+
+  if (!Number.isFinite(start) || !Number.isFinite(end) || start >= size || start > end) {
+    return 'unsatisfiable'
+  }
+
+  return { start, end }
+}
+
+export interface LocalMediaResponseInit {
+  method?: string
+  rangeHeader?: string | null
+}
+
+/** Build the 200 / 206 / 404 / 416 response for a local media file (HEAD gets headers only). */
+export async function buildLocalMediaResponse(resolvedPath: string, init: LocalMediaResponseInit = {}): Promise<Response> {
+  let handle: fsp.FileHandle
+
+  try {
+    handle = await fsp.open(resolvedPath, 'r')
+  } catch (error) {
+    const code = (error as NodeJS.ErrnoException)?.code
+
+    if (code === 'ENOENT' || code === 'ENOTDIR') {
+      return new Response('Media not found', { status: 404 })
+    }
+
+    throw error
+  }
+
+  // fstat the handle we are about to read from, so `Content-Length` and the streamed bytes come
+  // from the same open file even if the path is truncated or replaced meanwhile.
+  const stat = await handle.stat()
+  const size = stat.size
+  const mime = mediaMimeFor(resolvedPath)
+  const isHead = (init.method || 'GET').toUpperCase() === 'HEAD'
+  const range = parseByteRange(init.rangeHeader, size)
+
+  const baseHeaders: Record<string, string> = {
+    'Accept-Ranges': 'bytes',
+    'Cache-Control': 'no-store',
+    'Content-Type': mime,
+    'Last-Modified': stat.mtime.toUTCString()
+  }
+
+  const stream = (opts: { end?: number; start?: number }) =>
+    // Hand the FileHandle itself (not the raw fd) to the stream: it owns and closes it on end, so
+    // the handle is never closed twice (EBADF on garbage collection).
+    Readable.toWeb(createReadStream(resolvedPath, { ...opts, autoClose: true, fd: handle })) as unknown as ReadableStream
+
+  if (range === 'unsatisfiable') {
+    await handle.close()
+
+    return new Response(null, { headers: { ...baseHeaders, 'Content-Range': `bytes */${size}` }, status: 416 })
+  }
+
+  if (range === null) {
+    const headers = { ...baseHeaders, 'Content-Length': String(size) }
+
+    if (isHead || size === 0) {
+      await handle.close()
+
+      return new Response(null, { headers, status: 200 })
+    }
+
+    return new Response(stream({}), { headers, status: 200 })
+  }
+
+  const length = range.end - range.start + 1
+  const headers = {
+    ...baseHeaders,
+    'Content-Length': String(length),
+    'Content-Range': `bytes ${range.start}-${range.end}/${size}`
+  }
+
+  if (isHead) {
+    await handle.close()
+
+    return new Response(null, { headers, status: 206 })
+  }
+
+  return new Response(stream({ end: range.end, start: range.start }), { headers, status: 206 })
+}