fix(webui): harden stats route fallback flows

- make listening status prefetch optional so /stats still renders on status failures
- normalize no-stats-yet cache responses into the existing empty stats state
- restore streaming fallback when library track resolution errors
- add route and API regression coverage for the review fixes

webui/src/routes/stats/-route.test.tsx

@@ -106,6 +106,62 @@ describe('stats route', () => {
     expect(window.SoulSyncWebShellBridge?.setActivePageChrome).toHaveBeenCalledWith('stats');
   });
 
+  it('still renders when listening stats status prefetch fails', async () => {
+    vi.stubGlobal(
+      'fetch',
+      vi.fn(async (input: RequestInfo | URL) => {
+        const url = input instanceof Request ? input.url : String(input);
+        if (url.includes('/api/stats/cached')) {
+          return createResponse({
+            success: true,
+            overview: {
+              total_plays: 24,
+              total_time_ms: 6_600_000,
+              unique_artists: 3,
+              unique_albums: 4,
+              unique_tracks: 12,
+            },
+            top_artists: [{ id: 7, name: 'Artist A', play_count: 10 }],
+            top_albums: [],
+            top_tracks: [],
+            timeline: [{ date: 'May 10', plays: 4 }],
+            genres: [{ genre: 'House', play_count: 10, percentage: 80 }],
+            recent: [{ title: 'Track A', artist: 'Artist A', played_at: '2026-05-14T08:00:00Z' }],
+            health: { total_tracks: 12, format_breakdown: { FLAC: 12 } },
+          });
+        }
+        if (url.includes('/api/listening-stats/status')) {
+          return createResponse({ error: 'status unavailable' }, false, 500);
+        }
+        if (url.includes('/api/stats/db-storage')) {
+          return createResponse({
+            success: true,
+            tables: [{ name: 'tracks', size: 2048 }],
+            total_file_size: 4096,
+            method: 'dbstat',
+          });
+        }
+        if (url.includes('/api/stats/library-disk-usage')) {
+          return createResponse({
+            success: true,
+            has_data: true,
+            total_bytes: 2048,
+            tracks_with_size: 12,
+            tracks_without_size: 0,
+            by_format: { flac: 2048 },
+          });
+        }
+        return createResponse({ success: true });
+      }) as unknown as typeof fetch,
+    );
+
+    renderStatsRoute();
+
+    await waitFor(() => expect(screen.getByTestId('stats-page')).toBeInTheDocument());
+    expect(await screen.findByText('Listening Stats')).toBeInTheDocument();
+    expect(screen.getByText('Not synced yet')).toBeInTheDocument();
+  });
+
   it('stores the time range in route search state', async () => {
     const { history } = renderStatsRoute();
 
@@ -125,6 +181,80 @@ describe('stats route', () => {
     );
   });
 
+  it('falls back to streaming when track resolution fails', async () => {
+    window.SoulSyncWebShellBridge = createShellBridge({
+      startStream: vi.fn(),
+    });
+
+    vi.stubGlobal(
+      'fetch',
+      vi.fn(async (input: RequestInfo | URL) => {
+        const url = input instanceof Request ? input.url : String(input);
+        if (url.includes('/api/stats/cached')) {
+          return createResponse({
+            success: true,
+            overview: {
+              total_plays: 24,
+              total_time_ms: 6_600_000,
+              unique_artists: 3,
+              unique_albums: 4,
+              unique_tracks: 12,
+            },
+            top_artists: [{ id: 7, name: 'Artist A', play_count: 10 }],
+            top_albums: [],
+            top_tracks: [{ name: 'Track A', artist: 'Artist A', album: 'Album A', play_count: 3 }],
+            timeline: [{ date: 'May 10', plays: 4 }],
+            genres: [{ genre: 'House', play_count: 10, percentage: 80 }],
+            recent: [{ title: 'Track A', artist: 'Artist A', played_at: '2026-05-14T08:00:00Z' }],
+            health: { total_tracks: 12, format_breakdown: { FLAC: 12 } },
+          });
+        }
+        if (url.includes('/api/listening-stats/status')) {
+          return createResponse({ stats: { last_poll: '2026-05-14 10:00:00' } });
+        }
+        if (url.includes('/api/stats/resolve-track')) {
+          return createResponse({ error: 'resolve unavailable' }, false, 500);
+        }
+        if (url.includes('/api/enhanced-search/stream-track')) {
+          return createResponse({
+            success: true,
+            result: { stream_url: '/api/stream/1' },
+          });
+        }
+        if (url.includes('/api/stats/db-storage')) {
+          return createResponse({
+            success: true,
+            tables: [{ name: 'tracks', size: 2048 }],
+            total_file_size: 4096,
+            method: 'dbstat',
+          });
+        }
+        if (url.includes('/api/stats/library-disk-usage')) {
+          return createResponse({
+            success: true,
+            has_data: true,
+            total_bytes: 2048,
+            tracks_with_size: 12,
+            tracks_without_size: 0,
+            by_format: { flac: 2048 },
+          });
+        }
+        return createResponse({ success: true });
+      }) as unknown as typeof fetch,
+    );
+
+    renderStatsRoute();
+
+    fireEvent.click((await screen.findAllByTitle('Play'))[0]);
+
+    await waitFor(() =>
+      expect(window.SoulSyncWebShellBridge?.startStream).toHaveBeenCalledWith({
+        stream_url: '/api/stream/1',
+      }),
+    );
+    expect(window.SoulSyncWebShellBridge?.playLibraryTrack).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
   it('redirects back home when the page is not allowed', async () => {
     window.SoulSyncWebShellBridge = createShellBridge({
       isPageAllowed: vi.fn((pageId) => pageId !== 'stats'),

webui/src/routes/stats/-stats.api.test.ts

@@ -38,6 +38,46 @@ describe('stats api', () => {
     });
   });
 
+  it('returns an empty payload when cached stats are not available yet', async () => {
+    server.use(
+      http.get('/api/stats/cached', () =>
+        HttpResponse.json({ success: false, error: 'Listening stats not synced yet' }),
+      ),
+    );
+
+    await expect(fetchStatsCached('7d')).resolves.toMatchObject({
+      success: true,
+      overview: { total_plays: 0 },
+      top_artists: [],
+      top_albums: [],
+      top_tracks: [],
+      timeline: [],
+      genres: [],
+      recent: [],
+      health: {},
+    });
+  });
+
+  it('returns an empty payload when the server reports a cache miss as an HTTP error', async () => {
+    server.use(
+      http.get('/api/stats/cached', () =>
+        HttpResponse.json({ error: 'No cached stats available yet' }, { status: 500 }),
+      ),
+    );
+
+    await expect(fetchStatsCached('7d')).resolves.toMatchObject({
+      success: true,
+      overview: { total_plays: 0 },
+      top_artists: [],
+      top_albums: [],
+      top_tracks: [],
+      timeline: [],
+      genres: [],
+      recent: [],
+      health: {},
+    });
+  });
+
   it('surfaces db storage and disk usage errors', async () => {
     server.use(
       http.get('/api/stats/db-storage', () =>

webui/src/routes/stats/-stats.api.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { queryOptions, type QueryClient } from '@tanstack/react-query';
+import { HTTPError } from 'ky';
 
 import { apiClient, readJson } from '@/app/api-client';
 
@@ -12,18 +13,50 @@ import type {
   StatsStreamTrackPayload,
 } from './-stats.types';
 
+import { EMPTY_STATS_PAYLOAD } from './-stats.helpers';
+
 export const STATS_QUERY_KEY = ['stats'] as const;
 
+const NO_STATS_YET_PATTERNS = [
+  /not synced/i,
+  /no listening stats/i,
+  /no cached stats/i,
+  /cache miss/i,
+  /stats cache.*(missing|empty|not found)/i,
+] as const;
+
+function isNoStatsYetMessage(message: string | undefined): boolean {
+  if (!message) return false;
+  return NO_STATS_YET_PATTERNS.some((pattern) => pattern.test(message));
+}
+
+function getEmptyStatsPayload(): StatsCachedPayload {
+  return {
+    success: true,
+    ...EMPTY_STATS_PAYLOAD,
+  };
+}
+
 export async function fetchStatsCached(range: StatsRange): Promise<StatsCachedPayload> {
-  const payload = await readJson<StatsCachedPayload>(
-    apiClient.get('stats/cached', {
-      searchParams: { range },
-    }),
-  );
-  if (!payload.success) {
-    throw new Error(payload.error || 'Failed to load listening stats');
+  try {
+    const payload = await readJson<StatsCachedPayload>(
+      apiClient.get('stats/cached', {
+        searchParams: { range },
+      }),
+    );
+    if (!payload.success) {
+      if (isNoStatsYetMessage(payload.error)) {
+        return getEmptyStatsPayload();
+      }
+      throw new Error(payload.error || 'Failed to load listening stats');
+    }
+    return payload;
+  } catch (error) {
+    if (error instanceof HTTPError && isNoStatsYetMessage(error.message)) {
+      return getEmptyStatsPayload();
+    }
+    throw error;
   }
-  return payload;
 }
 
 export async function fetchListeningStatsStatus(): Promise<ListeningStatsStatus> {

webui/src/routes/stats/-ui/stats-page.tsx

@@ -871,22 +871,26 @@ async function playStatsTrack(
   bridge: ShellBridge,
   track: { title: string; artist: string; album: string },
 ) {
-  const resolvedTrack = await resolveStatsTrack(track.title, track.artist);
-  if (resolvedTrack) {
-    await bridge.playLibraryTrack(
-      {
-        id: resolvedTrack.id,
-        title: resolvedTrack.title,
-        file_path: resolvedTrack.file_path,
-        bitrate: resolvedTrack.bitrate,
-        artist_id: resolvedTrack.artist_id,
-        album_id: resolvedTrack.album_id,
-        _stats_image: resolvedTrack.image_url || null,
-      },
-      resolvedTrack.album_title || track.album,
-      resolvedTrack.artist_name || track.artist,
-    );
-    return;
+  try {
+    const resolvedTrack = await resolveStatsTrack(track.title, track.artist);
+    if (resolvedTrack) {
+      await bridge.playLibraryTrack(
+        {
+          id: resolvedTrack.id,
+          title: resolvedTrack.title,
+          file_path: resolvedTrack.file_path,
+          bitrate: resolvedTrack.bitrate,
+          artist_id: resolvedTrack.artist_id,
+          album_id: resolvedTrack.album_id,
+          _stats_image: resolvedTrack.image_url || null,
+        },
+        resolvedTrack.album_title || track.album,
+        resolvedTrack.artist_name || track.artist,
+      );
+      return;
+    }
+  } catch {
+    // Library resolve is best-effort; fall through to stream lookup on failure.
   }
 
   bridge.showLoadingOverlay(`Searching for ${track.title}...`);

webui/src/routes/stats/route.tsx

@@ -21,7 +21,12 @@ export const Route = createFileRoute('/stats')({
   loader: async ({ context, deps }) => {
     await Promise.all([
       context.queryClient.ensureQueryData(statsCachedQueryOptions(deps.range)),
-      context.queryClient.ensureQueryData(listeningStatsStatusQueryOptions()),
+      context.queryClient
+        .fetchQuery({
+          ...listeningStatsStatusQueryOptions(),
+          retry: false,
+        })
+        .catch(() => undefined),
     ]);
   },
   component: StatsPage,