fix(player): put the phone's Now Playing button above the artwork

`.expand` is the phone's only route into the full-screen now-playing
view. It is absolutely positioned with `z-index: auto` over
`.cover-art`, which is a *later* sibling with the same z-index, so the
two tie on paint order and the later one wins. An `<img>` costs nothing
there; a track with no artwork renders a placeholder `wa-icon`, which
takes every click aimed at the button underneath it.

So the control did not work whenever the current song had no cover, on
the one platform that has no other way in. Nothing to do with the
fixture: any library has untagged files.

Measured at 390px with elementFromPoint at the button's centre — the
icon with a placeholder, the button with an image, and the button
either way with the z-index. Chosen over `pointer-events: none` on the
art, which would take the cover preview's mouseenter with it, and over
reordering the DOM, which leaves the same tie to be won by the same
accident in the other direction.

This was filed as an e2e flake, and the diagnosis was wrong: it failed
on both engines three times across two branches that could not have
caused it, and passed on re-run each time, because the spec starts the
*first* row of the track list and which track that is depends on the
order the scan inserted rows — the same root cause as #156. The new
spec picks a track *for* having no artwork, and asserts the placeholder
is rendered rather than assuming it, so it cannot quietly go back to
measuring the easy case.

Two things it has to get right, both already documented traps: the
track must be the 90-second one, since a 2-second one finishes before
the assertions run; and `library.Track.CoverArt` is empty for all 31
fixture rows, so "the first track with no cover art" selects nothing in
particular and picked a short one.

Verified by mutation: without the z-index the new spec fails on the
click in 30s, and the pre-existing one beside it passes, which is
exactly how this survived.

Closes #150

.planning/NOTES.md

@@ -3891,3 +3891,189 @@ scan takes a minute and is worth running before demoting anybody's links
 — `explore-album-details`'s tracklist (number / title / artist /
 duration) is the one that plausibly *is* mostly link, and is the one
 #5 is about to add selection to.
+
+## A layout is still moving when a guard says it has arrived (measured 2026-08-20)
+
+`album-dropdown.spec.ts` failed with `Expected 80, Received 10` twice
+over two sessions, and #133 already strengthened its guard from
+"scrollable at all" to "has at least the range the assertion needs".
+That was necessary and could not be sufficient, and the reason is
+structural rather than a matter of thresholds: **a guard and the write
+it guards are separate CDP round trips**, so the page is free to
+re-lay-out between them. Polling harder cannot close a window between
+two moments; only removing the window can.
+
+Measured directly, sampling `scrollHeight - clientHeight` on
+`.grid-scroll-container` every frame across a 1440x900 → 900x600 resize,
+three runs:
+
+| t (ms) | range |
+|---|---|
+| 0 | 0 |
+| 1 | **88** |
+| 8–14 | 330 (settled) |
+
+88 satisfies a guard asking for 80 and is not the settled value, so the
+guard can pass while the grid is one layout pass from done. Under
+full-suite load the transient is worse — the observed failure had 10 —
+which is why it shows up on the second run of a suite and not in ten
+consecutive runs of the file alone (0/10 both before and after the fix).
+
+The shape to write instead: **one page-side call that performs the
+action and returns what it observes**, with `expect.poll` retrying
+*that*. `scrollTo()` sets `scrollTop` and returns `scrollTop`, so the
+assertion is about what the grid did rather than about what it was
+ready to do. `layout-overflow.spec.ts`'s sidebar probe already had the
+fused half and was missing the retry; it has both now.
+
+Worth generalising: a spec that resizes and then measures is asserting
+about a moving target for the next dozen frames. Fuse, then poll.
+
+## "The first N tracks" is not a way to ask for an ordinary one (2026-08-20)
+
+`queue-selection.spec.ts` staged its queue from the first few rows of
+`library.Library.GetTracks(0)` and clicked a track *name*, which
+`explore-link` routes to that track's **album** page. Four tracks in the
+fixture library have no album at all — `01 Tone A`, `02 Tone B`,
+`Title Only`, `no-tags-at-all` — and a name with nothing to route to
+renders as **plain text**, not as a link.
+
+Two things follow, and the second is the sharper one.
+
+**The order is the scan's.** `GetTracks` returns `audio_files.id` order,
+i.e. the order the scan inserted rows, which depends on concurrency and
+directory traversal. Locally the first eight are all from two proper
+albums, so the spec passed twice over; CI rebuilds its seed with a real
+scan, got a different eight, and failed on both engines. This is the
+same family as "a seed freezes every default it has already persisted" —
+the fixture library is not a list, it is a *set* with an incidental
+order, and no spec should depend on that order.
+
+**A loose locator hid it.** The row was located with
+`.locator('.explore-link').first()`, and a row has two — the title and
+the artist. When the title is plain text, `first()` silently resolves to
+the **artist** link, so the click went somewhere real and the assertion
+was about a destination the test had not exercised. `.track-title
+.explore-link` is the locator that says which one it means; the loose
+one turned a fixture problem into a mystery.
+
+The general rule for this repo's fixture library: it is deliberately
+full of edge cases (untagged, unicode, duplicates, extremes), so a spec
+that wants an *ordinary* track has to **say so** — filter on the
+property it depends on rather than slicing.
+## A nested rule starting with an element name is dropped on the phone (2026-08-20)
+
+`CLAUDE.md` records that the device renders in **Chrome 113**, which
+does not have relaxed CSS nesting (Chrome 120). The consequence is
+sharper than "some syntax is unavailable": a nested rule whose selector
+begins with a bare identifier is not a parse error you would notice, it
+is **silently dropped**.
+
+Three such rules were live in `frontend/index.css`, all inside
+`.bottom-bar`, and all therefore dead on the phone and only on the
+phone:
+
+```css
+.bottom-bar {
+    #track-info { p { … } }   /* the metadata's ellipsis */
+    now-playing { overflow: hidden; }
+    audio-player { margin: 0.5em 1em; }
+}
+```
+
+The first is the interesting one: it is the *ellipsis* on the bottom
+bar's track title and artist, so on the device that text has never
+truncated — the same class of fault as `now-playing`'s marquee, whose
+`text-overflow` sat on the wrong box and had never produced an ellipsis
+in any mode. Both are invisible to every assertion and visible in a
+screenshot.
+
+`& p`, `& now-playing`, `& audio-player` are valid in both, so the fix
+is one character per rule. What is worth keeping is the rule of thumb:
+**inside a nested block, always write `&`** — and note that a rule
+inside `@media` is *not* nested, so `@media … { bottom-nav { … } }`
+elsewhere in that file is fine and needs nothing.
+
+`make css-check` does not catch this (it looks for backticks that end a
+tagged template early). Filed as an issue: the check is the natural
+place for it, being the same shape of trap — a silent, phone-only,
+screenshot-only failure.
+
+## Centring a bar costs the control in the middle of it (measured 2026-08-20)
+
+#23 asks for the transport centred in the bottom bar. The obvious
+implementation — make the outer two grid tracks the same width, so the
+middle is centred by construction — is right, and the first cut of it
+was a regression, because "the same width" was taken to mean *the
+metadata's* width on both sides.
+
+Measured at 800px, with the seek bar's own track:
+
+| layout | seek track | transport column |
+|---|---|---|
+| `320px 1fr auto` (before) | 257 | 407 |
+| both sides `--now-playing-width` | **61** | 179 |
+| both sides `min(--now-playing-width, 25%)` | 246 | 364 |
+
+At 200% text the middle row is worse still: 130 before, **0** with the
+uncapped sides. Centring is free at 1440 and expensive at 800, so a
+change checked only at a comfortable width looks perfect.
+
+The general form: **a symmetric layout reserves space on the side that
+does not need it.** The right-hand group here is ~141px (volume plus
+the queue button) and was being given 320 to keep the arithmetic
+symmetric. Cap the side tracks against the *bar*, not against their
+content, and the middle gets the difference.
+
+The spec that pins this is two assertions, not one, and that split is
+deliberate: an uncapped build is *perfectly centred* and fails only the
+seek-bar width, so a spec asserting centring alone would have passed
+the regression.
+
+## The phone's way into Now Playing was under the artwork (measured 2026-08-20)
+
+`phone-shell.spec.ts`'s "opens the full-screen now playing" failed in CI
+on both engines, three times across two branches that could not have
+caused it, and passed on re-run each time. It was filed as a flake
+(#150). It is not one: **it depends on which track is playing.**
+
+`.expand` — the phone's only route into `<now-playing-view>` — is
+`position: absolute; inset: 0` inside `.cover-art-wrapper`, and
+`.cover-art` is a **later sibling**. Both have `z-index: auto`, so they
+tie on paint order and the later one wins. With an `<img>` that costs
+nothing; with no artwork the placeholder `wa-icon` renders and takes
+every click aimed at the button underneath it.
+
+Measured at 390px with `elementFromPoint` at the button's centre:
+
+| playing track | hit test |
+|---|---|
+| has artwork | `button.expand` |
+| no artwork | **`wa-icon`** |
+| no artwork, with `z-index: 1` | `button.expand` |
+
+So on a phone, the only way into the full-screen player stopped working
+whenever the current song had no cover — and this has nothing to do with
+the fixture: any library has untagged files.
+
+Three things worth keeping.
+
+**"Flaky in CI" was the wrong diagnosis and it cost three cycles.** The
+spec starts the *first* row of the track list, so which track it plays
+is the order the scan inserted rows in — the same root cause as #156,
+one spec over. A test whose subject is a hit test has to *choose* the
+case that breaks it.
+
+**The first two hypotheses were both wrong, and both were plausible.**
+A custom element's upgrade replacing its own contents, and the cover
+preview's `mouseenter` opening a popup under the pointer. Neither
+survived contact with `elementFromPoint`, which took a minute and would
+have saved the other two cycles.
+
+**And the spec that pins it needs the 90-second track**, because a
+2-second one finishes before the assertions run — the trap
+`fixtures.ts` already documents. Note the filter that does *not* work:
+`library.Track.CoverArt` is empty for all 31 fixture rows, so "the
+first track with no cover art" selects nothing in particular. The
+placeholder's presence is asserted instead, which is the property the
+test actually depends on.

CLAUDE.md

@@ -1572,6 +1572,50 @@ And **the bar does not resize when a job starts**, which is the case the
 whole thing is for — a ResizeObserver on the header alone never fires,
 so every element child is observed too.
 
+**The bottom bar is three columns whose outer two are the same width,
+and that is what "centred" means.** It was `320px 1fr auto`, so the
+transport sat in the middle of the space the metadata and the queue
+button did not use — its centre was ~140px right of the window's at
+every size (#23). The outer tracks are now the same expression, so the
+middle one is centred by construction rather than by arithmetic that
+has to be redone whenever a control joins the bar.
+
+Four things about it are load-bearing.
+
+**The side width is the metadata's, capped at a quarter of the bar**,
+and the cap is not tidiness — it was measured as a regression first.
+Reserving the full `--now-playing-width` on *both* sides costs the
+transport twice: at 800px the outer pair wanted 640 of 800 and the seek
+bar's track fell from **257px to 61px**, and to 0 at 200% text. The
+control you drag was being squeezed to centre the buttons above it.
+With the cap it is 246px at 800, which is parity with the uncentred
+layout.
+
+**The cap is a `min()` rather than a breakpoint** because
+`--now-playing-width` is *user state* — the metadata panel has a drag
+handle — and the same reasoning the queue panel's overlay mode uses
+applies: a rule that assumed the default 320 would be wrong by whatever
+the user dragged. Tying both sides to that variable is also what keeps
+the handle meaningful; a plain `1fr … 1fr` would centre the transport
+just as well and silently make dragging a no-op.
+
+**The volume moved out of `audio-player` and into the bar** (#42),
+because the transport column has to hold the transport and nothing
+else or "centred" means centred with a slider bolted to one side. It
+lives in `.bar-end` with the queue button — one cell, not two columns,
+since the centring compares *columns* and a separate volume track would
+make the outer pair unequal by whatever the slider measures.
+
+And **the slider is inline by default, with the popup as a setting**
+whose stored flag names the *popup*: `backend/config`'s polarity rule,
+where the zero value has to be the intended answer, so an existing
+`config.toml` with no key gets the new default without a migration.
+Inline, the icon becomes the mute toggle and is named after that action
+rather than after the state, because with the slider beside it there is
+nothing left to disclose. It stands down below 600px whatever the
+setting says — that is about the platform rather than preference, and
+is why `mediacontrols`' Android handler implements no volume callback.
+
 **900 is the worst desktop width, not the 800×600 minimum.** The
 sidebar collapses to icons *below* 900, so the main panel is 843px at
 899 and 700px at 900 — the narrowest content area any desktop width

backend/config/config.go

@@ -666,6 +666,49 @@ func (c *Config) SetAllowMeteredCatalogDownload(allow bool) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
+// GetPopupVolume reports whether the bottom bar's volume control is a
+// click-to-open popup rather than an inline slider (#42).
+func (c *Config) GetPopupVolume() bool {
+	if c.General == nil {
+		return false
+	}
+
+	return c.General.PopupVolume
+}
+
+// SetPopupVolume saves the volume control's presentation.
+//
+// Nothing to validate: both values are legal at every width, and the
+// frontend additionally stands the inline slider down below the phone
+// breakpoint whatever this says, because that is about room rather than
+// about preference.
+func (c *Config) SetPopupVolume(popup bool) error {
+	if c.General == nil {
+		c.General = &GeneralConfig{}
+		c.General.ApplyDefaults()
+	}
+
+	c.General.PopupVolume = popup
+
+	if err := c.Save(); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf(
+			"could not save config: %w", err,
+		)
+	}
+
+	events.Emit(
+		c.ctx,
+		events.GeneralConfigChanged,
+		map[string]any{
+			"PopupVolume": popup,
+		},
+	)
+
+	c.logger.Info("volume control presentation updated", "popup", popup)
+
+	return nil
+}
+
 // GetViewVisibility reports which primary views the sidebar should
 // show, answered for every known view rather than only the ones the
 // config mentions -- so the frontend filters on a value and never has

backend/config/emit_test.go

@@ -188,3 +188,43 @@ func TestEmit_FavoritesChangeCarriesFullConfig(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	}
 }
+
+// TestEmit_PopupVolumeRoundTripsAndDefaultsToInline pins both halves of
+// #42's storage decision.
+//
+// The **default** is the load-bearing one: inline is what a fresh
+// install and an existing `config.toml` with no such key must both
+// produce, which is why the field names the popup rather than the
+// inline slider. A flag spelled the other way round would default to
+// false, hand every existing install the popup this issue exists to
+// stop being the only option, and need a migration to say otherwise.
+func TestEmit_PopupVolumeRoundTripsAndDefaultsToInline(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	conf, rec := setupRecordedConfig(t)
+
+	if conf.GetPopupVolume() {
+		t.Error("a config with no PopupVolume key wants the popup, want inline")
+	}
+
+	if err := conf.SetPopupVolume(true); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("SetPopupVolume: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	if !conf.GetPopupVolume() {
+		t.Error("GetPopupVolume = false after setting it true")
+	}
+
+	data := payloadMap(t, rec, events.GeneralConfigChanged)
+	if data["PopupVolume"] != true {
+		t.Errorf("PopupVolume = %v, want true", data["PopupVolume"])
+	}
+
+	if err := conf.SetPopupVolume(false); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("SetPopupVolume(false): %v", err)
+	}
+
+	if conf.GetPopupVolume() {
+		t.Error("GetPopupVolume = true after setting it false")
+	}
+}

backend/config/general.go

@@ -54,6 +54,16 @@ type GeneralConfig struct {
 	// so an existing config with no such key refuses by default rather
 	// than needing a migration to become careful.
 	AllowMeteredCatalogDownload bool `toml:"AllowMeteredCatalogDownload"`
+	// PopupVolume draws the bottom bar's volume as a click-to-open popup
+	// instead of a slider that is always there (#42).
+	//
+	// The polarity is the rule this file already states twice: **the
+	// zero value is the intended answer**. Inline is the new default, so
+	// the flag has to name the *other* choice — an `InlineVolume bool`
+	// would default to false and give every existing install the popup
+	// this issue exists to stop being the only option, and would need a
+	// migration to say otherwise.
+	PopupVolume bool `toml:"PopupVolume"`
 }
 
 // ApplyDefaults fills zero-value fields with sensible defaults.

e2e/specs/album-dropdown.spec.ts

@@ -110,27 +110,30 @@ test.describe('the album dropdown', () => {
     await app.setViewportSize({ width: 900, height: 600 });
 
     try {
-      // Wait for the range the assertion below actually needs, not for
+      // The container has to be a scroller at all, which is the thing
-      // "scrollable at all" (#133). The guard used to be
+      // the defect behind this spec broke and is a property rather
-      // `scrollHeight > clientHeight + 40` while the next line asks to
+      // than a moment.
-      // reach 80, so any range in 41-79 satisfied it and could not
-      // satisfy the assertion — and the grid passes through exactly
-      // that while it settles, because it recomputes its columns after
-      // the resize rather than during it. The settled range here is
-      // 330, so this waits rather than weakening anything.
       await expect
         .poll(() => scrollRange(app))
-        .toMatchObject({ room: true, overflowY: 'auto' });
+        .toMatchObject({ overflowY: 'auto' });
 
-      await app.evaluate((target) => {
+      // **Scrolling it and reading it back are one round trip** (#151).
-        const sc = document
+      //
-          .querySelector('cover-grid')
+      // #133 made the guard ask for the range this needs rather than
-          ?.shadowRoot?.querySelector('.grid-scroll-container');
+      // for "scrollable at all", which was necessary and is not
-
+      // sufficient: a guard and the write it guards are separate
-        if (sc) sc.scrollTop = target;
+      // `evaluate` calls, so the grid can satisfy the range and settle
-      }, SCROLL_TARGET);
+      // out of it before the write lands. It still does — observed as
-
+      // `Expected 80, Received 10` in the second of three consecutive
-      expect(await scrollTop(app)).toBe(SCROLL_TARGET);
+      // full-suite runs, with the spec green alone on the same app
+      // straight afterwards.
+      //
+      // Polling harder cannot close a window between two moments; only
+      // removing the window can. So the probe sets `scrollTop` and
+      // returns what it reads back, in one page-side call, and the
+      // poll retries *that* — which also means the assertion is about
+      // what the grid did rather than about what it was ready to do.
+      await expect.poll(() => scrollTo(app, SCROLL_TARGET)).toBe(SCROLL_TARGET);
 
       // And the dropdown it opens is on screen, wherever the manager
       // decides that leaves the scroll. It is *not* "the position is
@@ -261,7 +264,7 @@ async function closeDropdown(app: Page): Promise<void> {
   });
 }
 
-/** Whether the grid can scroll at all, which decides if a probe can move. */
+/** Whether the grid is a scroller at all, which is what the bug broke. */
 async function scrollRange(app: Page) {
   return app.evaluate((target) => {
     const sc = document
@@ -269,22 +272,37 @@ async function scrollRange(app: Page) {
       ?.shadowRoot?.querySelector('.grid-scroll-container');
 
     return {
-      // `room` is the precondition of the assertion that follows it:
+      // Reported for the failure message rather than waited on: `room`
-      // enough range to actually reach the target. A threshold below
+      // was the guard #133 strengthened, and #151 is that a guard in
-      // what the caller depends on is not a guard.
+      // its own round trip cannot speak for the write in the next one.
+      // `scrollTo` below is the assertion now; this says *why* it did
+      // not reach the target when it does not.
       room: !!sc && sc.scrollHeight - sc.clientHeight >= target,
       overflowY: sc ? getComputedStyle(sc).overflowY : '',
     };
   }, SCROLL_TARGET);
 }
 
-async function scrollTop(app: Page): Promise<number> {
+/**
-  return app.evaluate(
+ * Scroll the grid and report where it actually landed, in one call.
-    () =>
+ *
-      document
+ * The whole point is that the set and the read share a moment: a
-        .querySelector('cover-grid')
+ * `scrollTop` write is clamped to the range *at the instant it lands*,
-        ?.shadowRoot?.querySelector('.grid-scroll-container')?.scrollTop ?? -1,
+ * so reading it back in a second round trip asks a container that may
-  );
+ * have re-laid out in between.
+ */
+async function scrollTo(app: Page, target: number): Promise<number> {
+  return app.evaluate((to) => {
+    const sc = document
+      .querySelector('cover-grid')
+      ?.shadowRoot?.querySelector('.grid-scroll-container');
+
+    if (!sc) return -1;
+
+    sc.scrollTop = to;
+
+    return sc.scrollTop;
+  }, target);
 }
 
 /** Whether the open dropdown is inside the scroll container's viewport. */

e2e/specs/bottom-bar.spec.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,147 @@
+import { test, expect, callBinding, NO_QUEUE_SOURCE } from '../support/fixtures.js';
+import type { Page } from '@playwright/test';
+
+/**
+ * The bottom bar's two promises (#23, #42): the transport is centred in
+ * the window, and the volume is a slider rather than a popup.
+ *
+ * **"Centred" is measured against the window, not against the space
+ * left over**, which is the whole of #23. The bar was
+ * `320px 1fr auto`, so the transport sat in the middle of what the
+ * metadata and the queue button did not use — its centre was ~140px
+ * right of the window's at every size, which reads as an alignment
+ * mistake rather than as a layout choice.
+ *
+ * The mechanism is that the outer two columns are the same width, so
+ * this asserts the *outcome* (centre lines up) rather than the CSS. A
+ * spec that checked `grid-template-columns` would pass on any build
+ * that kept the declaration and broke the result.
+ */
+
+/** Where the transport sits, against where the window's centre is. */
+const geometry = (app: Page) =>
+  app.evaluate(() => {
+    const bar = document.querySelector<HTMLElement>('.bottom-bar')!;
+    const player = document.querySelector<HTMLElement>('audio-player')!;
+    const b = bar.getBoundingClientRect();
+    const p = player.getBoundingClientRect();
+
+    const seek = player.shadowRoot
+      ?.querySelector('seek-bar')
+      ?.shadowRoot?.querySelector('wa-slider');
+
+    return {
+      offset: Math.round(p.left + p.width / 2 - (b.left + b.width / 2)),
+      barHeight: Math.round(b.height),
+      seekWidth: seek ? Math.round(seek.getBoundingClientRect().width) : -1,
+    };
+  });
+
+/** Something has to be playing before the transport draws a seek bar. */
+async function play(app: Page): Promise<void> {
+  const paths = await app.evaluate(async () => {
+    const tracks = (await window.__yjEvents.call(
+      'library.Library.GetTracks',
+      [0],
+      10_000,
+    )) as { FilePath: string }[];
+
+    return tracks.slice(0, 3).map((t) => t.FilePath);
+  });
+
+  await callBinding(app, 'queue.Queue.SetQueue', [
+    paths,
+    0,
+    false,
+    NO_QUEUE_SOURCE,
+  ]);
+  await callBinding(app, 'queue.Queue.Play');
+  await expect(app.getByTestId('now-playing-title')).not.toBeEmpty();
+}
+
+test.describe('the bottom bar', () => {
+  test.afterEach(async ({ app }) => {
+    await callBinding(app, 'queue.Queue.Clear').catch(() => {
+      /* already empty */
+    });
+    await app.setViewportSize({ width: 1440, height: 900 });
+  });
+
+  /**
+   * Four widths, because a centring bug is a function of width: the old
+   * layout was off by half the difference between the two outer
+   * columns, so it was wrong by a different amount at each one and
+   * exactly right at none.
+   */
+  for (const width of [800, 900, 1100, 1440]) {
+    test(`centres the transport in the window at ${width}px`, async ({
+      app,
+    }) => {
+      await app.setViewportSize({ width, height: 700 });
+      await play(app);
+
+      await expect.poll(() => geometry(app).then((g) => g.offset)).toBe(0);
+    });
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * The seek bar is what the centring is *paid for* with, so it is
+   * asserted rather than assumed.
+   *
+   * Reserving the metadata's full width on both sides centres the
+   * transport perfectly and squeezes the control you drag: measured
+   * during this work at **61px of track at 800px**, against 257 before
+   * the change. The side columns are capped at a quarter of the bar for
+   * that reason, and this is the number that says so — 246 at 800px,
+   * which is parity with the uncentred layout.
+   */
+  test('does not pay for the centring with the seek bar', async ({ app }) => {
+    await app.setViewportSize({ width: 800, height: 700 });
+    await play(app);
+
+    await expect
+      .poll(() => geometry(app).then((g) => g.seekWidth))
+      .toBeGreaterThan(200);
+  });
+
+  /**
+   * #42: the slider is simply there. Three gestures — click open, drag,
+   * click closed — is what a bottom bar has room not to ask for.
+   */
+  test('shows the volume slider without a click', async ({ app }) => {
+    await app.setViewportSize({ width: 1440, height: 900 });
+
+    const volume = app.locator('.bottom-bar volume-control');
+
+    await expect(volume).toBeVisible();
+    await expect(volume.locator('wa-slider')).toBeVisible();
+  });
+
+  /**
+   * And the inline icon is the mute toggle, because with the slider
+   * beside it there is nothing left to disclose. The name follows the
+   * action rather than the state for the same reason.
+   */
+  test('names the inline icon after what it does', async ({ app }) => {
+    await app.setViewportSize({ width: 1440, height: 900 });
+
+    await expect(
+      app.locator('.bottom-bar volume-control').getByRole('button', {
+        name: 'Mute',
+      }),
+    ).toBeVisible();
+  });
+
+  /**
+   * The bar is a fixed 4em row and the transport sits in it. A slider
+   * with a label grows `#slider` by 8px unless `wa-slider-label.css`
+   * suppresses it, which moved the whole bar the last time — so the
+   * height is pinned here rather than left to a screenshot.
+   */
+  test('stays 4em tall', async ({ app }) => {
+    await app.setViewportSize({ width: 1440, height: 900 });
+    await play(app);
+
+    await expect.poll(() => geometry(app).then((g) => g.barHeight)).toBe(64);
+  });
+});

e2e/specs/control-names.spec.ts

@@ -29,18 +29,13 @@ test.describe('a control says what it controls', () => {
   });
 
   test('the volume slider is announced as Volume', async ({ app }) => {
-    // The popup renders no slider at all while closed, the same way the
+    // No disclosure to open first, and no state to put back afterwards:
-    // queue panel renders no list — so this has to open it first.
+    // #42 made the slider inline, so it is simply there. The assertion
-    await app.getByRole('button', { name: /volume/i }).click();
+    // is unchanged — the *name* is the subject here, and the route to
-
+    // the control got shorter rather than different.
     await expect(
       app.getByRole('slider', { name: 'Volume' }),
     ).toBeVisible();
-
-    // Leave the transport as it was found: the specs share one page in
-    // file order, and an open popup covers the buttons beneath it.
-    await app.keyboard.press('Escape');
-    await app.locator('body').click({ position: { x: 5, y: 5 } });
   });
 
   test('naming the slider did not move the transport', async ({ app }) => {

e2e/specs/layout-overflow.spec.ts

@@ -132,22 +132,34 @@ test.describe('the app fits in its own window', () => {
     // be dragged here, but a scaled display or a large system font can
     // still land the layout in it, and clipping the nav with no scroll
     // is the failure that made Settings unreachable.
-    const reachable = await app.locator('app-sidebar').evaluate((el) => {
+    //
-      const settings = el.shadowRoot?.querySelector<HTMLElement>(
+    // The scroll and the measurement share one `evaluate` — #151's
-        '[data-testid="nav-settings"]',
+    // rule, which this already had — and the whole probe is polled,
-      );
+    // which it did not: a viewport change settles asynchronously, so a
+    // single attempt reads whatever the sidebar happened to be doing.
+    // The probe is safe to repeat because scrolling to the bottom twice
+    // is scrolling to the bottom.
+    await expect
+      .poll(() =>
+        app.locator('app-sidebar').evaluate((el) => {
+          const settings = el.shadowRoot?.querySelector<HTMLElement>(
+            '[data-testid="nav-settings"]',
+          );
 
-      if (!settings) return null;
+          if (!settings) return null;
 
-      el.scrollTop = el.scrollHeight;
+          el.scrollTop = el.scrollHeight;
 
-      const item = settings.getBoundingClientRect();
+          const item = settings.getBoundingClientRect();
-      const pane = el.getBoundingClientRect();
+          const pane = el.getBoundingClientRect();
 
-      return item.bottom <= Math.ceil(pane.bottom) && item.top >= Math.floor(pane.top);
+          return (
-    });
+            item.bottom <= Math.ceil(pane.bottom) &&
-
+            item.top >= Math.floor(pane.top)
-    expect(reachable).toBe(true);
+          );
+        }),
+      )
+      .toBe(true);
   });
 });
 

e2e/specs/phone-shell.spec.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { test, expect } from '../support/fixtures.js';
+import { test, expect, LONG_TRACK } from '../support/fixtures.js';
 
 /**
  * The phone shell (plan 016 B2, phase 1).
@@ -138,6 +138,78 @@ test.describe('the shell on a phone', () => {
       .toHaveAttribute('data-active-view', 'tracks');
   });
 
+  /**
+   * The same journey with a track that has **no cover art** (#150).
+   *
+   * The test above starts the *first* row of the track list, so which
+   * track it plays is the order the scan inserted them in — and the
+   * answer decided whether it passed. A track with artwork renders an
+   * `<img>`, which is no obstacle; one without renders a placeholder
+   * `wa-icon`, which took every click aimed at the button beneath it,
+   * because that button is absolutely positioned with `z-index: auto`
+   * and the art is a *later* sibling. They tied, and the later one won.
+   *
+   * So this picks a track *for* the property that broke it, which is
+   * the only way the assertion means anything: the version above passes
+   * on a broken build roughly two runs in three, which is exactly how
+   * it came to cost three CI cycles across two branches that could not
+   * have caused it.
+   */
+  test('opens the full-screen now playing for a track with no art', async ({
+    app,
+  }) => {
+    // `LONG_TRACK` by name, and not "the first track with no
+    // CoverArt": the *library* model reports that field empty for
+    // every row in this fixture (31 of 31), so filtering on it selects
+    // nothing in particular and picked a 2-second track, which had
+    // finished before the assertions ran. The placeholder check below
+    // is what actually holds the property this test needs.
+    const started = await app.evaluate(async (longTitle) => {
+      const tracks = (await window.__yjEvents.call(
+        'library.Library.GetTracks',
+        [0],
+        10_000,
+      )) as { FilePath: string; TrackName: string }[];
+
+      const bare = tracks.find((t) => t.TrackName === longTitle);
+
+      if (!bare) return null;
+
+      await window.__yjEvents.call(
+        'queue.Queue.SetQueue',
+        [[bare.FilePath], 0, false, { type: '', id: 0, label: '' }],
+        10_000,
+      );
+      await window.__yjEvents.call('queue.Queue.Play', [], 5_000);
+
+      return bare.TrackName;
+    }, LONG_TRACK);
+
+    expect(started).toBe(LONG_TRACK);
+
+    await expect(app.getByTestId('now-playing-title')).not.toBeEmpty();
+
+    // **The placeholder is the whole point**, so it is asserted rather
+    // than assumed: this test is about the thing that renders when
+    // there is no artwork. If the fixture ever gives this album a
+    // cover, this fails and says so instead of passing while measuring
+    // the easy case.
+    //
+    // One selector rather than a chain from the host: Playwright's CSS
+    // engine pierces an open shadow root, and chaining from the host
+    // element does not reach into it.
+    await expect(
+      app.locator('now-playing .cover-placeholder'),
+    ).toBeAttached();
+
+    await app.getByTestId('open-now-playing').click();
+
+    await expect(app.getByTestId('main-content'))
+      .toHaveAttribute('data-active-view', 'now-playing');
+
+    await app.getByTestId('npv-back').click();
+  });
+
   test('offers no way in on a desktop, where the bar is whole', async ({ app }) => {
     await app.setViewportSize({ width: 1440, height: 900 });
 
@@ -154,9 +226,26 @@ test.describe('the shell on a phone', () => {
     await expect(app.locator('now-playing')).toBeVisible();
 
     // Volume is the hardware keys' job on a phone, and a 4px seek bar
-    // is not a thumb target -- both belong to a later phase's
+    // is not a thumb target -- both belong to the full-screen
-    // full-screen now-playing view.
+    // now-playing view.
-    await expect(app.locator('audio-player volume-control')).toBeHidden();
+    //
+    // `.bottom-bar volume-control`, not `audio-player volume-control`:
+    // #42 moved the control out of that component and into the bar, and
+    // **the old locator would have kept passing** — `toBeHidden()` is
+    // satisfied by an element that does not exist, so this assertion
+    // would have gone on reporting success about nothing. Its partner
+    // below is what makes this one mean something.
+    await expect(app.locator('.bottom-bar volume-control')).toBeHidden();
+
+    // The element is there and hidden, rather than absent: the check
+    // above cannot tell those apart on its own.
+    await expect(app.locator('.bottom-bar volume-control')).toHaveCount(1);
+
+    // And the seek bar is still inside the transport, where it stands
+    // down by its own media query.
+    await expect(
+      app.locator('audio-player').locator('seek-bar'),
+    ).toBeHidden();
   });
 });
 

e2e/specs/queue-selection.spec.ts

@@ -93,10 +93,31 @@ async function queueSixAndOpen(app: Page): Promise<void> {
       'library.Library.GetTracks',
       [0],
       10_000,
-    )) as { FilePath: string; TrackName: string }[];
+    )) as { FilePath: string; TrackName: string; Album: string }[];
 
     const long = tracks.find((t) => t.TrackName === longTitle);
-    const rest = tracks.filter((t) => t.TrackName !== longTitle).slice(0, 5);
+
+    /**
+     * **Tracks that have an album**, which is a requirement of one of
+     * the tests and was previously left to luck (#156).
+     *
+     * `explore-link` routes a track name to its *album's* page, so a
+     * track with no album renders a name that navigates nowhere — and
+     * the fixture library deliberately contains two (`01 Tone A`,
+     * `02 Tone B`). Which tracks arrive first is `audio_files.id`
+     * order, i.e. the order the **scan** inserted them, which depends
+     * on concurrency and directory traversal: locally the first eight
+     * all had albums and the spec passed twice over, and CI rebuilds
+     * its seed with a real scan and got a different eight.
+     *
+     * Asking for what the test needs is the fix. It is not a
+     * narrowing: every assertion here wants an ordinary track, and
+     * "the first five rows" was never a way to ask for one in a
+     * library whose whole purpose is edge cases.
+     */
+    const rest = tracks
+      .filter((t) => t.TrackName !== longTitle && t.Album !== '')
+      .slice(0, 5);
 
     // Index 3 is the long one: far enough down that a shift-extend has
     // room either side of it.
@@ -223,7 +244,14 @@ test.describe('selecting in the queue with a mouse', () => {
       .poll(() => selected(app), { timeout: HIGHLIGHT_MS })
       .toEqual([1]);
 
-    await row(app, 2).locator('.explore-link').first().click();
+    // `.track-title .explore-link`, not `.explore-link` first(): a row
+    // has two, and which one `first()` finds depends on whether the
+    // *title* is a link at all. It is not, for a track with no album —
+    // `explore-link` renders plain text where it cannot route — so the
+    // loose locator silently clicked the **artist** instead and the
+    // assertion below was about a different destination than the one
+    // being exercised (#156).
+    await row(app, 2).locator('.track-title .explore-link').click();
 
     await expect(app.getByTestId('main-content')).toHaveAttribute(
       'data-active-view',

frontend/bindings/yellowjacket/backend/config/config.ts

@@ -69,6 +69,14 @@ export function GetPinDefaultPlaylist(): $CancellablePromise<boolean> {
     return $Call.ByID(3818283301);
 }
 
+/**
+ * GetPopupVolume reports whether the bottom bar's volume control is a
+ * click-to-open popup rather than an inline slider (#42).
+ */
+export function GetPopupVolume(): $CancellablePromise<boolean> {
+    return $Call.ByID(2885777);
+}
+
 /**
  * GetQueueFallback returns what plays, if anything, once the queue
  * runs out.
@@ -207,6 +215,18 @@ export function SetPinDefaultPlaylist(pin: boolean): $CancellablePromise<void> {
     return $Call.ByID(372446849, pin);
 }
 
+/**
+ * SetPopupVolume saves the volume control's presentation.
+ * 
+ * Nothing to validate: both values are legal at every width, and the
+ * frontend additionally stands the inline slider down below the phone
+ * breakpoint whatever this says, because that is about room rather than
+ * about preference.
+ */
+export function SetPopupVolume(popup: boolean): $CancellablePromise<void> {
+    return $Call.ByID(1430308453, popup);
+}
+
 /**
  * SetQueueFallback validates and saves a new queue-fallback mode.
  */

frontend/index.css

@@ -211,7 +211,39 @@ body div.sidebar {
     padding: 0.25em;
     background-color: var(--yj-bg-elevated, #343a40);
     display: grid;
-    grid-template-columns: var(--now-playing-width, 320px) 1fr auto;
+    /* Three columns whose outer two are the *same* width, which is what
+       centres the middle one (#23). It was `var(--now-playing-width) 1fr
+       auto`, so the transport's centre sat at `W/2 + 140px` — in the
+       middle of the space left over, which is not the same thing and
+       reads as an alignment mistake at every window size.
+
+       The outer width is still `--now-playing-width`, so **the metadata
+       panel's drag handle keeps meaning something**: widening it takes
+       room from the transport on both sides at once, symmetrically. An
+       `1fr … 1fr` pair would have centred the transport just as well and
+       silently made that handle a no-op.
+
+       **The cap is what stops that being a regression**, and it was
+       measured as one first. Reserving the full metadata width on both
+       sides costs the transport twice: at 800px the outer pair wanted
+       640 of 800, and the seek bar's track went from 257px to 61px
+       (and to 0 at 200% text) — the control you drag, squeezed out to
+       centre the buttons above it. So the side tracks are the metadata
+       width *or a quarter of the bar*, whichever is smaller, which
+       leaves the drag handle meaningful everywhere it has room to be
+       and hands the difference to the transport where it does not.
+
+       `minmax(0, …)` on the outer tracks and `min-content` on the middle
+       decide who yields when even that is not enough: the metadata and
+       the end group shrink (both truncate; neither loses an action), and
+       the transport keeps at least its buttons. Without the `min-content`
+       floor the middle collapses first, because a `1fr` track's minimum
+       is `auto` only until something else insists. */
+    --bar-side: min(var(--now-playing-width, 320px), 25%);
+    grid-template-columns:
+        minmax(0, var(--bar-side))
+        minmax(min-content, 1fr)
+        minmax(0, var(--bar-side));
     align-items: center;
     contain: layout style;
 
@@ -239,23 +271,44 @@ body div.sidebar {
             text-wrap-mode: nowrap;
             overflow: hidden;
 
-            p {
+            /* `& p`, not `p`. **A nested rule that begins with a bare
+               element selector is silently dropped before Chrome 120**
+               (relaxed nesting), and the phone this app runs on renders
+               in Chrome 113 -- so this ellipsis, and the two rules
+               below, have never applied on the device. Nothing fails;
+               the text simply overflows there. The `&` form is valid in
+               both, which is why it is used for every element selector
+               in this file's nested blocks. */
+            & p {
                 overflow: hidden;
                 text-overflow: ellipsis;
             }
         }
     }
 
-    now-playing {
+    & now-playing {
         overflow: hidden;
     }
 
-    audio-player {
+    & audio-player {
         margin: 0.5em 1em;
+        min-width: 0;
+    }
+
+    /* The right-hand group, and the thing the left column is matched
+       against. It is one grid cell rather than two columns because the
+       centring rule above compares *columns*: volume and the queue
+       button in separate tracks would make the outer pair unequal by
+       whatever the volume happens to measure. */
+    .bar-end {
+        justify-self: end;
+        display: flex;
+        align-items: center;
+        gap: 0.25em;
+        min-width: 0;
     }
 
     #queue-button {
-        justify-self: end;
         background: none;
         border: none;
         color: inherit;
@@ -440,6 +493,11 @@ body div.sidebar {
 }
 
 @media (max-width: 599px) {
+    /* The phone keeps the two-part bar it had: metadata, then the
+       transport and the queue button. There is no third column to
+       balance because the centring the desktop does is a luxury of
+       having room — at 360px the metadata needs all of the space the
+       controls do not. */
     .bottom-bar {
         grid-template-columns: minmax(0, 1fr) auto auto;
         gap: 0.25em;
@@ -448,4 +506,19 @@ body div.sidebar {
     .bottom-bar audio-player {
         margin: 0.25em;
     }
+
+    /* Volume stands down here whatever the setting says, because this
+       is about room and about the platform rather than about
+       preference: the hardware keys own volume on a phone, which is
+       also why mediacontrols' Android handler implements no volume
+       callback. It moved from `audio-player`'s own media query when
+       #42 moved the control into the bar — same rule, and now stated
+       where the element actually is.
+
+       `.bottom-bar volume-control`, not the one in
+       `now-playing-view`: that view is the phone's transport and is
+       where a slider does belong. */
+    .bottom-bar volume-control {
+        display: none;
+    }
 }

frontend/index.html

@@ -40,16 +40,31 @@
         </main>
         <queue-panel id="queue-panel"></queue-panel>
     </div>
+    <!-- Three columns, and the outer two are the same width, which is
+         what makes the middle one *centred* rather than merely in the
+         middle of what is left (#23). The transport used to sit in a
+         `320px 1fr auto` grid, so its centre was ~140px right of the
+         window's.
+
+         That is also why the volume moved out of `audio-player` and
+         into the bar (#42): the transport column has to contain the
+         transport and nothing else, or "centred" means centred with a
+         slider bolted to one side. It joins the queue button in
+         `.bar-end`, whose width is what the left column is matched
+         against. -->
     <footer class="bottom-bar">
         <now-playing></now-playing>
         <audio-player></audio-player>
-        <button aria-label="Toggle queue" aria-controls="queue-panel" aria-expanded="false"
+        <div class="bar-end">
-            id="queue-button">
+            <volume-control></volume-control>
-            <!-- ICON_QUEUE in src/utils/icon-language.ts, written out
+            <button aria-label="Toggle queue" aria-controls="queue-panel" aria-expanded="false"
-                 because this file has no module scope. It was `list`,
+                id="queue-button">
-                 which is the Playlists destination's icon. -->
+                <!-- ICON_QUEUE in src/utils/icon-language.ts, written out
-            <wa-icon name="bars-staggered"></wa-icon>
+                     because this file has no module scope. It was `list`,
-        </button>
+                     which is the Playlists destination's icon. -->
+                <wa-icon name="bars-staggered"></wa-icon>
+            </button>
+        </div>
     </footer>
     <!-- The phone's primary navigation, hidden above 600px by
          index.css.  Eager rather than a chunk, for the reason

frontend/index.ts

@@ -18,6 +18,9 @@
 //   track-list — index.html renders one, so it is the first paint.
 // ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 import '@components/audio-player/audio-player.ts';
+// In the bar rather than inside `audio-player` since #42, so the shell
+// is what has to register it.
+import '@components/audio-player/volume-control/volume-control.ts';
 import '@components/track-list/track-list.ts';
 import '@components/now-playing/now-playing.ts';
 import '@components/sidebar/app-sidebar.ts';

frontend/src/components/audio-player/audio-player.ts

@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ import { customElement } from 'lit/decorators.js';
 import '@awesome.me/webawesome/dist/components/icon/icon.js';
 import './controls/player-controls';
 import './seekbar/seek-bar';
-import './volume-control/volume-control';
 import '../notifications/inline-notice';
 import { PlayerRegion } from '@store/player-store';
 import { designTokens } from '../../styles/tokens.css';
@@ -30,6 +29,7 @@ export class AudioPlayer extends LitElement {
 
     .player-main {
       flex: 1;
+      min-width: 0;
     }
 
     /* The phone transport (plan 016 B2): the buttons, and nothing
@@ -37,14 +37,17 @@ export class AudioPlayer extends LitElement {
        viewport, not by the host, so this is the component saying what
        it drops at phone width rather than the shell reaching in.
 
-       Volume goes because the hardware keys own it on a phone --
-       Android routes them to the media stream, which is also why
-       mediacontrols' Android handler implements no volume callback.
        The seek bar goes because a 4px-tall target dragged with a thumb
        is not a seek control; seeking belongs to the full-screen
-       now-playing view, which is the next phase. */
+       now-playing view.
+
+       Volume used to go from here too, and now goes from index.css
+       instead: #42 moved the control out of this component and into
+       the bar, so the shell is what can hide it. The reason is
+       unchanged -- the hardware keys own volume on a phone, which is
+       also why mediacontrols' Android handler implements no volume
+       callback. */
     @media (max-width: 599px) {
-      volume-control,
       seek-bar {
         display: none;
       }
@@ -65,7 +68,6 @@ export class AudioPlayer extends LitElement {
             <seek-bar></seek-bar>
           </div>
         </div>
-        <volume-control></volume-control>
       </div>
     `;
   }

frontend/src/components/audio-player/volume-control/volume-control.ts

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import '@awesome.me/webawesome/dist/components/icon/icon.js';
 import '@awesome.me/webawesome/dist/components/slider/slider.js';
 import type WaSlider from '@awesome.me/webawesome/dist/components/slider/slider.js';
 import { PlayerController } from '@store/controllers/player-controller';
+import { volumeStyleStore } from '@store/volume-style-store';
 import { designTokens } from '../../../styles/tokens.css';
 import { waSliderLabel } from '../../../styles/wa-slider-label.css';
 
@@ -22,6 +23,12 @@ export class VolumeControl extends LitElement {
   @state()
   private showSlider = false;
 
+  /** Whether this is the click-to-open popup rather than a slider. */
+  @state()
+  private popup = volumeStyleStore.popup;
+
+  private unsubscribeStyle?: () => void;
+
   // Locally-tracked volume while the user is actively dragging or scrolling.
   // The store's volume only updates once the backend echoes VolumeChanged
   // (which we debounce), so we track intent here for responsive UI and to let
@@ -86,11 +93,31 @@ export class VolumeControl extends LitElement {
       --thumb-height: 16px;
     }
 
-    wa-slider::part(track) {
+    .volume-popup wa-slider::part(track) {
       background: var(--yj-text-primary, white);
       height: 120px;
     }
 
+    /* The inline slider (#42). It is the default now, so the width is
+       a real layout decision rather than a detail: 5em is wide enough
+       to aim at and narrow enough that the bottom bar's *outer*
+       columns stay equal without squeezing the transport — which is
+       the arrangement #23 depends on.
+
+       flex-shrink: 0 for the reason the top bar's children have it
+       (#143): a control that quietly gets narrower under pressure
+       hides the fact that the bar has run out of room. This one stands
+       down at phone width instead, in index.css, where the shell can
+       see the viewport. */
+    .inline-slider {
+      width: 5em;
+      flex-shrink: 0;
+    }
+
+    .inline-slider::part(track) {
+      background: var(--yj-text-primary, white);
+    }
+
     wa-slider::part(indicator) {
       background: var(--yj-accent, yellow);
     }
@@ -122,8 +149,23 @@ export class VolumeControl extends LitElement {
   // LIFECYCLE
   // ===================================================================
 
+  override connectedCallback() {
+    super.connectedCallback();
+
+    this.unsubscribeStyle = volumeStyleStore.subscribe(() => {
+      this.popup = volumeStyleStore.popup;
+
+      // Switching to the slider while the popup is open would leave the
+      // document listener installed for a popup that no longer renders.
+      if (!this.popup) this.closeSlider();
+    });
+
+    void volumeStyleStore.init();
+  }
+
   override disconnectedCallback() {
     super.disconnectedCallback();
+    this.unsubscribeStyle?.();
     document.removeEventListener('click', this.boundHandleOutsideClick);
     clearTimeout(this.volumeDebounceTimer);
   }
@@ -154,10 +196,12 @@ export class VolumeControl extends LitElement {
   private handleOutsideClick(e: Event) {
     const path = e.composedPath();
 
-    if (!path.includes(this)) {
+    if (!path.includes(this)) this.closeSlider();
-      this.showSlider = false;
+  }
-      document.removeEventListener('click', this.boundHandleOutsideClick);
+
-    }
+  private closeSlider() {
+    this.showSlider = false;
+    document.removeEventListener('click', this.boundHandleOutsideClick);
   }
 
   private handleInput(e: Event) {
@@ -192,18 +236,46 @@ export class VolumeControl extends LitElement {
   override render() {
     const muted = this.player.muted;
 
+    // Inline, the icon is the mute toggle rather than a disclosure:
+    // there is nothing left to disclose, and a button that opens a
+    // popup containing the slider already beside it would be a control
+    // whose only effect is to duplicate its neighbour.
+    const iconAction = this.popup
+      ? this.toggleSlider
+      : () => this.player.toggleMute();
+    const iconLabel = this.popup
+      ? muted
+        ? 'Muted'
+        : `Volume ${this.currentVolume}%`
+      : muted
+        ? 'Unmute'
+        : 'Mute';
+
     return html`
       <button
         class=${muted ? 'muted' : ''}
         title=${muted ? 'Muted — click for volume' : 'Volume'}
-        aria-label=${muted ? 'Muted' : `Volume ${this.currentVolume}%`}
+        aria-label=${iconLabel}
         data-muted=${muted ? 'true' : 'false'}
-        @click="${this.toggleSlider}"
+        @click="${iconAction}"
         @wheel="${this.handleWheel}"
       >
         <wa-icon name=${this.volumeIcon}></wa-icon>
       </button>
-      ${this.showSlider
+      ${!this.popup
+        ? html`
+            <wa-slider
+              class="inline-slider ${muted ? 'muted' : ''}"
+              label="Volume"
+              min="0"
+              max="100"
+              .value="${this.currentVolume}"
+              @input="${this.handleInput}"
+              @wheel="${this.handleWheel}"
+            ></wa-slider>
+          `
+        : ''}
+      ${this.popup && this.showSlider
         ? html`
             <div
               class="volume-popup ${muted ? 'muted' : ''}"

frontend/src/components/config-page/config-page.ts

@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ import {
     SetQueueFallback,
     GetAllowMeteredCatalogDownload,
     SetAllowMeteredCatalogDownload,
+    GetPopupVolume,
+    SetPopupVolume,
 } from '@go/config/config.js';
 import { GetIndexStatus } from '@go/explore/service.js';
 import { notificationStore } from '@store/notification-store';
@@ -125,6 +127,8 @@ export class ConfigPage extends ViewLifecycleMixin(LitElement) {
     @state() private concurrencyMode = 'auto';
     @state() private defaultPage = 'home';
     @state() private queueFallback = 'favorites';
+
+    @state() private popupVolume = false;
     @state() private indexStatus: explore.IndexStatus | null = null;
     /** Three states, not one: the panel used to say "Loading status…"
      *  for the entire session, because the only thing that ever set
@@ -938,20 +942,28 @@ export class ConfigPage extends ViewLifecycleMixin(LitElement) {
 
     private async loadLibraries(): Promise<void> {
         try {
-            const [libs, mode, defaultPage, queueFallback, allowMetered] =
+            const [
-                await Promise.all([
+                libs,
-                    GetAllLibrariesWithTrackCounts(),
+                mode,
-                    GetScanConcurrency(),
+                defaultPage,
-                    GetDefaultPage(),
+                queueFallback,
-                    GetQueueFallback(),
+                allowMetered,
-                    GetAllowMeteredCatalogDownload(),
+                popupVolume,
-                ]);
+            ] = await Promise.all([
+                GetAllLibrariesWithTrackCounts(),
+                GetScanConcurrency(),
+                GetDefaultPage(),
+                GetQueueFallback(),
+                GetAllowMeteredCatalogDownload(),
+                GetPopupVolume(),
+            ]);
 
             this.libraries = libs ?? [];
             this.concurrencyMode = mode;
             this.defaultPage = defaultPage;
             this.queueFallback = queueFallback;
             this.allowMeteredCatalogDownload = allowMetered;
+            this.popupVolume = popupVolume;
 
         } catch (err) {
             console.error(
@@ -1858,10 +1870,51 @@ export class ConfigPage extends ViewLifecycleMixin(LitElement) {
                     .value=${this.queueFallback}
                     @config-change=${this.handleQueueFallbackChange}
                 ></config-field>
+                <config-field
+                    .schema=${{
+                        key: 'popupVolume',
+                        label: 'Volume opens in a popup',
+                        description:
+                            'Off, the volume slider is always visible in the '
+                            + 'player bar. On, it hides behind the speaker '
+                            + 'icon. The slider stands down on a phone either '
+                            + 'way, where the hardware keys own volume.',
+                        type: 'toggle' as const,
+                    }}
+                    .value=${this.popupVolume}
+                    @config-change=${this.handlePopupVolumeChange}
+                ></config-field>
             </config-section>
         `;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * The volume control's presentation (#42).
+     *
+     * In General rather than beside the theme because it is about the
+     * transport's behaviour rather than its colours, and next to "When
+     * the Queue Ends" because both are answers to "how should the
+     * player behave".
+     */
+    private handlePopupVolumeChange = (
+        e: CustomEvent<ConfigFieldChangeEvent>,
+    ): void => {
+        const popup = Boolean(e.detail.value);
+        const previous = this.popupVolume;
+
+        this.popupVolume = popup;
+
+        void SetPopupVolume(popup).catch((err: unknown) => {
+            console.error('failed to save the volume control setting', err);
+            this.popupVolume = previous;
+            notificationStore.transient({
+                key: 'popup-volume-setting',
+                title: 'Setting not saved',
+                text: describeError(err, 'That setting could not be saved.'),
+            });
+        });
+    };
+
     // --- Navigation section ---
 
     /**

frontend/src/components/now-playing/now-playing.ts

@@ -188,6 +188,27 @@ export class NowPlaying extends LitElement {
         cursor: pointer;
         /* The art shows through; this is a target, not a picture. */
         color: transparent;
+        /* **Above the art, or it is not a target at all** (#150).
+
+           This button is absolutely positioned with z-index auto and
+           the art is a *later* sibling, so the two tie on paint order
+           and the later one wins. With an <img> that costs nothing --
+           an image is not a hit-test obstacle here -- but a track with
+           no artwork renders a placeholder wa-icon, which is, and it
+           takes every click aimed at the button underneath it.
+
+           The failure is therefore per *track*, not per build: on a
+           phone the only way into the full-screen now-playing view
+           stopped working whenever the current song had no cover.
+           Measured with elementFromPoint at the button's centre --
+           wa-icon with a placeholder, button.expand with an image, and
+           button.expand either way once this line exists.
+
+           z-index rather than pointer-events: none on the art, which
+           would take the cover preview's mouseenter with it; and
+           rather than reordering the DOM, which would leave the same
+           tie to be won by the same accident in the other direction. */
+        z-index: 1;
       }
 
       .expand:focus-visible {

frontend/src/store/volume-style-store.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+import { EventsOn } from '@runtime/runtime';
+import { GetPopupVolume } from '@go/config/config.js';
+import { Events } from '../events';
+
+type Subscriber = () => void;
+
+/**
+ * Whether the volume control is a click-to-open popup (#42).
+ *
+ * The popup was the only option, and "click open, drag, click closed"
+ * is three gestures for a control a bottom bar has room to just show.
+ * So an inline slider is the default and the popup is a setting.
+ *
+ * **The stored flag names the popup, not the slider**, which is the
+ * polarity rule `backend/config` states for every option it has: the
+ * zero value has to be the intended answer. An `InlineVolume bool`
+ * would default to false, hand the popup to every existing install, and
+ * need a migration to say what the default already says.
+ *
+ * It is a store rather than a field on the component because two
+ * components render `<volume-control>` — the bottom bar and the phone's
+ * full-screen now-playing view — and a setting that only reached
+ * whichever one happened to mount after it changed is the fault
+ * `active-view-store` exists to prevent, one surface over.
+ *
+ * The initial value is the *default* rather than a pending answer, so
+ * the first paint is the inline slider and not an empty gap that
+ * becomes one. An install that has chosen the popup sees it swap once
+ * on load, which is the cheaper of the two wrong first frames: the
+ * inline slider occupies the space the popup's button would have.
+ */
+class VolumeStyleStore {
+    private value = false;
+
+    private loaded = false;
+
+    private subscribers = new Set<Subscriber>();
+
+    constructor() {
+        EventsOn(Events.GeneralConfigChanged, () => {
+            void this.refresh();
+        });
+    }
+
+    /** Whether to draw the popup. Safe to read before `init()`. */
+    get popup(): boolean {
+        return this.value;
+    }
+
+    /** Reads the setting once. Safe to call from every mount. */
+    async init(): Promise<void> {
+        if (this.loaded) return;
+
+        this.loaded = true;
+
+        await this.refresh();
+    }
+
+    subscribe(fn: Subscriber): () => void {
+        this.subscribers.add(fn);
+
+        return () => this.subscribers.delete(fn);
+    }
+
+    private async refresh(): Promise<void> {
+        try {
+            const popup = await GetPopupVolume();
+
+            if (popup === this.value) return;
+
+            this.value = popup;
+            this.notify();
+        } catch (err) {
+            // Nothing to tell the user: the control renders in its
+            // default presentation, which is a working volume control.
+            console.error('failed to read the volume control setting', err);
+        }
+    }
+
+    private notify(): void {
+        for (const fn of this.subscribers) fn();
+    }
+}
+
+export const volumeStyleStore = new VolumeStyleStore();

frontend/test/components/transport.test.ts

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import '@components/audio-player/controls/player-controls';
 import '@components/audio-player/seekbar/seek-bar';
 import '@components/audio-player/volume-control/volume-control';
 import { Events } from '../../src/events';
-import { emit, calls, lastArgs, flush } from '@test/support/harness';
+import { emit, calls, lastArgs, flush, stub } from '@test/support/harness';
 import {
   fixture,
   shadow,
@@ -434,13 +434,40 @@ describe('<seek-bar>', () => {
  * be driven by its own event — watching the volume number, as it used
  * to, meant pressing M visibly did nothing.
  */
+/**
+ * The volume control has two presentations (#42), and the icon button
+ * means a different thing in each — so both are exercised rather than
+ * whichever one happens to be the default.
+ *
+ * Inline is the default: the slider is simply there, which leaves the
+ * icon with nothing to disclose, so it is the mute toggle and is named
+ * after that action. In the popup it is a disclosure, so it is named
+ * after the *state* it is showing.
+ */
 describe('volume control: mute', () => {
-  beforeEach(() => {
+  /**
+   * Put the presentation back to the default between tests.
+   *
+   * `volumeStyleStore` is a singleton whose `init()` reads the setting
+   * once, so stubbing the binding inside a test is too late — a
+   * previous test has already loaded it. `GeneralConfigChanged` is the
+   * store's own refresh trigger and the same one the Settings page
+   * fires, so driving it that way exercises the real path instead of
+   * reaching for a test-only reset.
+   */
+  const setPresentation = async (popup: boolean) => {
+    stub('config.Config.GetPopupVolume', popup);
+    emit(Events.GeneralConfigChanged, {});
+    await flush();
+  };
+
+  beforeEach(async () => {
+    await setPresentation(false);
     emit(Events.VolumeChanged, 40);
     emit(Events.MuteChanged, false);
   });
 
-  it('shows a muted glyph and label once the backend reports mute', async () => {
+  it('shows a muted glyph once the backend reports mute', async () => {
     const el = await fixture('volume-control');
 
     expect(shadow(el, 'button')?.getAttribute('data-muted')).toBe('false');
@@ -453,14 +480,53 @@ describe('volume control: mute', () => {
     expect(shadow(el, 'button wa-icon')?.getAttribute('name')).toBe(
       'volume-xmark',
     );
+  });
+
+  it('names the inline icon after the action it performs', async () => {
+    const el = await fixture('volume-control');
+
+    expect(shadow(el, 'button')?.getAttribute('aria-label')).toBe('Mute');
+
+    emit(Events.MuteChanged, true);
+    await flush();
+    await el.updateComplete;
+
+    expect(shadow(el, 'button')?.getAttribute('aria-label')).toBe('Unmute');
+  });
+
+  it('names the popup icon after the state it discloses', async () => {
+    await setPresentation(true);
+
+    const el = await fixture('volume-control');
+
+    await el.updateComplete;
+
+    expect(shadow(el, 'button')?.getAttribute('aria-label')).toBe(
+      'Volume 40%',
+    );
+
+    emit(Events.MuteChanged, true);
+    await flush();
+    await el.updateComplete;
+
     expect(shadow(el, 'button')?.getAttribute('aria-label')).toBe('Muted');
   });
 
+  it('shows the slider without a click when it is inline', async () => {
+    const el = await fixture('volume-control');
+
+    // The whole point of the issue: no disclosure to operate first.
+    expect(shadow<HTMLInputElement>(el, 'wa-slider')?.value).toBe(40);
+  });
+
   it('keeps showing the volume level while muted, because it is unchanged', async () => {
+    await setPresentation(true);
     emit(Events.MuteChanged, true);
     await flush();
 
     const el = await fixture('volume-control');
+
+    await el.updateComplete;
     await click(el, 'button');
 
     expect(shadow<HTMLInputElement>(el, 'wa-slider')?.value).toBe(40);
@@ -468,11 +534,24 @@ describe('volume control: mute', () => {
 
   it('toggles mute through the backend rather than locally', async () => {
     const el = await fixture('volume-control');
+
+    await click(el, 'button');
+
+    expect(calls('player.Player.MuteToggle').length).toBe(1);
+    // Nothing optimistic: the icon follows the backend's event.
+    expect(shadow(el, 'button')?.getAttribute('data-muted')).toBe('false');
+  });
+
+  it('toggles mute from inside the popup, where the icon is a disclosure', async () => {
+    await setPresentation(true);
+
+    const el = await fixture('volume-control');
+
+    await el.updateComplete;
     await click(el, 'button');
     await click(el, '.mute-toggle');
 
     expect(calls('player.Player.MuteToggle').length).toBe(1);
-    // Nothing optimistic: the icon follows the backend's event.
     expect(shadow(el, 'button')?.getAttribute('data-muted')).toBe('false');
   });
 });