diff --git a/app/engine.js b/app/engine.js
index 29d557d..0ad2d4d 100644
--- a/app/engine.js
+++ b/app/engine.js
@@ -195,6 +195,59 @@ const state = {
   degradedAt: 0
 };
 
+/*
+ * FOLLOW THE BOTTOM ONLY WHILE THE OPERATOR IS AT THE BOTTOM.
+ *
+ * Every one of these boxes used to end its update with
+ * `box.scrollTop = box.scrollHeight`, unconditionally. While the service is
+ * running that fires on every sentence, so scrolling back to re-read what was
+ * just said was impossible: the box yanked itself to the live edge a fraction
+ * of a second later, every time. Reported from the desk as "can't scroll on
+ * what's being said when it's live", which is exactly what it was.
+ *
+ * A box follows the live edge until the operator scrolls away from it, and
+ * starts following again when they come back to it. Nothing has to be pressed
+ * to get out, and nothing has to be pressed to get back in.
+ *
+ * The slack matters. A programmatic jump to the bottom also raises a scroll
+ * event, and it lands AT the bottom, so sticking survives its own scrolling.
+ * Sub-pixel layout and a growing last line can leave a couple of pixels
+ * behind, which with a zero threshold would unstick the box on its own output.
+ */
+/*
+ * Trimming the TOP of a box the operator is reading moves the text under
+ * their eyes — the other half of "it keeps jumping". While they are scrolled
+ * away the cap is suspended, so the lines they are looking at stay put; when
+ * they return to the live edge the backlog is trimmed in one go. The ceiling
+ * keeps a box that is left scrolled up all service from growing without end.
+ */
+function trimTop(box, cap) {
+  if (!box) return;
+  const held = box.dataset.stick === '0';
+  const limit = held ? cap * 6 : cap;
+  while (box.children.length > limit) box.removeChild(box.firstChild);
+}
+
+const STICK_SLACK_PX = 48;
+const stickWired = new WeakSet();
+
+function followBottom(box) {
+  if (!box) return;
+  if (!stickWired.has(box)) {
+    stickWired.add(box);
+    box.dataset.stick = '1';
+    box.addEventListener('scroll', () => {
+      const atBottom =
+        box.scrollHeight - box.scrollTop - box.clientHeight <= STICK_SLACK_PX;
+      box.dataset.stick = atBottom ? '1' : '0';
+    }, { passive: true });
+  }
+  /* Scrolled away: leave the view exactly where they put it. New content
+     grows BELOW the viewport, so not touching scrollTop is what holds the
+     reader's place — there is nothing else to do here. */
+  if (box.dataset.stick !== '0') box.scrollTop = box.scrollHeight;
+}
+
 // ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── logging
 
 function log(msg, kind) {
@@ -208,8 +261,8 @@ function log(msg, kind) {
   if (kind) line.className = kind;
   line.textContent = new Date().toLocaleTimeString() + '  ' + msg;
   el.appendChild(line);
-  while (el.children.length > 200) el.removeChild(el.firstChild);
-  el.scrollTop = el.scrollHeight;
+  trimTop(el, 200);
+  followBottom(el);
 }
 
 function hero(stateName, title, body) {
@@ -2471,8 +2524,8 @@ function monitorFinal(cid, text) {
   monRows.set(cid, el);
   /* Neither the map nor the box may grow for the length of a service. */
   while (monRows.size > 60) monRows.delete(monRows.keys().next().value);
-  while (box.children.length > 24) box.removeChild(box.firstChild);
-  box.scrollTop = box.scrollHeight;
+  trimTop(box, 24);
+  followBottom(box);
 }
 
 /*
@@ -2514,7 +2567,7 @@ function monitorTranslation(cid, lang, text) {
     row.classList.add('dropped');
   }
   const box = $('monitor');
-  if (box) box.scrollTop = box.scrollHeight;
+  followBottom(box);
 }
 
 /*
@@ -2581,9 +2634,9 @@ function showMonitor(text, isPartial, langCount) {
     sub.textContent = langCount + ' language' + (langCount === 1 ? '' : 's') + ' · ' + state.lagMs + ' ms';
     el.appendChild(sub);
     box.appendChild(el);
-    while (box.children.length > 30) box.removeChild(box.firstChild);
+    trimTop(box, 30);
   }
-  box.scrollTop = box.scrollHeight;
+  followBottom(box);
 }
 
 // ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── church server
diff --git a/app/package.json b/app/package.json
index 0c4e598..ce1a8ad 100644
--- a/app/package.json
+++ b/app/package.json
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
   "name": "church-translate-engine",
   "productName": "Church Translate",
   "version": "3.23.2",
-  "buildNumber": 125,
+  "buildNumber": 126,
   "private": true,
   "description": "Live sermon translation — self-contained: captures audio, transcribes, translates, and serves the congregation page itself",
   "main": "main.js",
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@
       ]
     },
     "asar": false,
-    "buildVersion": "125",
+    "buildVersion": "126",
     "win": {
       "target": [
         {
diff --git a/app/server/public/listen.js b/app/server/public/listen.js
index 48c6007..f4abd17 100644
--- a/app/server/public/listen.js
+++ b/app/server/public/listen.js
@@ -519,7 +519,16 @@
     /* After any interruption the player resumes where it left off and stays
        behind live forever — no error, no stall, just permanently late. Every
        one of these events is a chance to catch back up. */
-    ['playing', 'stalled', 'waiting', 'canplay', 'loadedmetadata'].forEach(function (ev) {
+    /*
+     * 'stalled' and 'waiting' are deliberately NOT in this list. A seek on a
+     * live HLS stream makes the element re-buffer, which raises exactly those
+     * two events — so seeking from them is a loop that feeds itself: seek,
+     * stall, seek, stall. On Safari, where HLS is played natively and a seek
+     * lands on a segment boundary, each turn of that loop replays or skips
+     * part of a sentence. That is the "it repeats a bit two or three times
+     * then moves on" reported from iPhones.
+     */
+    ['playing', 'canplay', 'loadedmetadata'].forEach(function (ev) {
       a.addEventListener(ev, function () { seekLive(); });
     });
 
@@ -599,8 +608,28 @@
    * and 4s of tolerance plus a 5s check interval meant real drift could reach
    * nine seconds before anyone looked.
    */
-  var DRIFT_MAX = 1.5;
-  var DRIFT_LAND = 0.6;
+  /*
+   * DRIFT_LAND WAS 0.6 S, AND ONE SEGMENT IS 0.697 S.
+   *
+   * So the target sat INSIDE the newest segment — a point the player very
+   * often did not have yet. It would be dragged up to the edge, run out of
+   * audio, stall, and the stall would trigger another correction. A phone
+   * cannot hold a position closer to live than the segments arriving.
+   *
+   * Three segments back (~2.1 s) is what HLS players choose for themselves on
+   * a live playlist, and it is the smallest target with enough buffered audio
+   * to survive one late segment. The tolerance is wider than one segment too,
+   * so an ordinary arrival wobble is not read as drift.
+   *
+   * It costs about a second and a half of extra delay. A listener a second
+   * further behind is following the service; a listener whose audio keeps
+   * jumping backwards is not.
+   */
+  var DRIFT_MAX = 3.0;
+  var DRIFT_LAND = 2.1;
+  /* A correction needs time to settle before its own result is judged. */
+  var SEEK_COOLDOWN_MS = 5000;
+  var lastSeekAt = 0;
 
   /*
    * How far behind the live edge this listener is SUPPOSED to be.
@@ -627,6 +656,11 @@
       var want = driftTarget();
       var behind = (edge - a.currentTime) - want;   // + = too late, - = too early
       if (!force && Math.abs(behind) <= DRIFT_MAX) return;
+      /* One correction at a time. Without this, timeupdate (four times a
+         second) can fire a fresh seek while the last one is still buffering,
+         and the element never gets a chance to settle anywhere. */
+      if (!force && Date.now() - lastSeekAt < SEEK_COOLDOWN_MS) return;
+      lastSeekAt = Date.now();
       /*
        * Land just BEHIND the target, never on the edge. Seeking exactly to the
        * live edge leaves no buffered audio at all, so the phone stalls on the