diff --git a/.planning/NOTES.md b/.planning/NOTES.md
index dd1a3b0..f7bfee7 100644
--- a/.planning/NOTES.md
+++ b/.planning/NOTES.md
@@ -4573,3 +4573,137 @@ fault in it, and it is filed as #172 with the per-element budget. #64
 umbrella; folding shuffle and repeat back onto the primary row was
 considered and rejected — it buys 52px, leaves the art at 91px, and
 costs a third arrangement of the same five buttons.
+
+## The volume is not ours on Android, and the predicate could not be a width (measured 2026-08-21)
+
+#64 asked for the in-app volume control to be absent on Android. Its
+first Finding said `volume-control` "already stands down at narrow
+widths", which was true of one of its two copies and is why the issue
+had been read as nearly done. The bar's copy goes by width; the
+full-screen view's copy was deliberately kept, with a comment saying a
+slider does belong there.
+
+**The crux was platform versus width, and three options were on the
+issue.** What settled it is that the *backend* half of the same issue —
+pin the level at 1.0 — makes a width rule wrong on the platform the
+issue is about: an Android tablet at >=600px gets the bottom bar, and
+the bar's slider would then move a level that is pinned. That is a
+control that cannot act, which `library-status-indicator` already
+settled is worse than none. The same rule is wrong the other way below
+600px, where a narrow desktop window has no hardware keys.
+
+So the frontend asks the player — `SystemOwnsVolume` — and the answer
+is right at every width in both mount points. **The predicate is named
+after the capability rather than the platform**, which is what makes it
+testable: only `platformOwnsVolume` is behind a build tag, in two files
+that declare nothing else, and everything else is decided against a
+field a Go test sets either way. `frontend/test/components/
+volume-ownership.test.ts` stubs the binding and so exercises the
+*Android* rendering on an ordinary Linux runner; both of its tests were
+confirmed to fail on the build before the change.
+
+**Measured at 424x439, by flipping `platformOwnsVolume` to true in the
+`!android` file and rebuilding** — the real binding, the real store, the
+real component, everything except the tag:
+
+| element | before | after |
+|---|---|---|
+| header | 48 | 48 |
+| **album art** | **39** | **68** |
+| title / artist / album | 63 | 63 |
+| transport (seek + controls + volume) | **172** | **143** |
+| — seek bar | 19 | 19 |
+| — player-controls | 116 | 116 |
+| — volume-control | 21 | **0** |
+
+29px, which is the 21px control plus the 8px flex gap it stops drawing:
+a gap is only painted between boxes, so `:host([hidden])` costs the
+transport nothing rather than leaving a hole. That is #172's "~30px of
+pure gain" confirmed, and the art is 74% larger. It is still the
+second-smallest thing on the screen, which is #51's evidence.
+
+Three smaller things worth keeping.
+
+**`:host([hidden])` has to be written down.** The UA's `[hidden]`
+rule is `display: none`, but `volume-control`'s own `:host` sets
+`display: inline-flex` and outranks it — so setting `hidden` alone
+hides nothing. Same family as the nested-`#queue-button` specificity
+trap from the session before.
+
+**Rendering `nothing` and hiding the host are two different
+assertions**, and the component test makes both: an empty shadow root
+is what stops a by-role or positional query finding a button that
+cannot act, and `hidden` is what stops the host occupying space. Either
+alone passes on a build that gets the other wrong.
+
+**The bar's centring survives the control going away.** #23's outer
+columns are the same `min()` expression rather than content-sized, so
+at 900px with the volume gone the bar's centre, `audio-player`'s centre
+and `player-controls`' centre are all 450 — checked, because "the
+transport is centred with a slider bolted to one side" is the fault
+that rule exists for and removing the slider is the obvious way to
+re-break it.
+
+**What no tier here can check**: the constant itself, and ducking
+against a real audio-focus change. The first is a source sweep
+(`TestPlatformVolumeOwnershipIsDeclaredOncePerPlatform`), the second is
+`TestSystemVolumeStillDucks` against the arithmetic. Neither is a
+device, and no device was attached.
+
+### The device answered three of the four (measured 2026-08-21, TLP301 / Android 14 / SDK 34 / arm64, Chrome 113 at 424x439)
+
+A Light Phone III was attached after the PR was opened, so what that PR
+listed as unverifiable was re-checked rather than left as a caveat.
+
+**The whole chain resolves on the device.** `__yj.call("player.Player.
+SystemOwnsVolume", [])` answers `true` — build tag, `platformOwnsVolume`,
+`Player.systemVolume` and the generated binding, end to end. That is the
+one thing the source sweep only approximates, and it took a real arm64
+device because nothing else here compiles the `android` file at all.
+(`GOOS=android GOARCH=arm64 CGO_ENABLED=1 go build ./backend/...` with
+the NDK's clang compiles it in ~40 s and is worth running first; it
+catches a type error but not a wrong constant.)
+
+**The control is absent in both mount points**, on the real engine:
+`.bottom-bar volume-control` is `hidden` with an empty shadow root, and
+so is `now-playing-view`'s. Measured on the device, transport **143px**,
+which is the figure the desktop-headless "after" predicted exactly. The
+art is 75px there rather than 68 because the fixture's `.names` block is
+one line shorter, not because anything differs.
+
+**Nothing persists a level nobody chose, and this is the measurement
+that took some care.** The default (50) surviving proves nothing, since
+50 is also what a fresh row holds. So: force-stop, pull `yj.db`, set
+`player_state.volume = 37`, push it back through
+`run-as … dd` (a `cp` from `/sdcard` is refused — the app sandbox
+cannot read it), relaunch, and drive a queue change to make the row be
+rewritten. Reading it back **the WAL has to be pulled with it** — the
+main file still showed the old `last_track_path` and reads as a write
+that never happened. With `yj.db-wal` beside it: `last_track_path` is
+the new track, so `saveState` ran, and `volume` is still **37**.
+
+**The duck cannot be verified on this device, and now for a stated
+reason rather than for want of hardware.** `WailsForegroundService`
+builds its `AudioFocusRequest` without `setWillPauseWhenDucked` on
+API >= 26, so the framework attenuates the stream itself and never
+delivers `AUDIOFOCUS_LOSS_TRANSIENT_CAN_DUCK`. The device's own log
+says so: `MediaFocusControl: requestAudioFocus() … AA=USAGE_MEDIA/
+CONTENT_TYPE_MUSIC … req=1 flags=0x0` — no
+`AUDIOFOCUS_FLAG_PAUSES_ON_DUCKABLE_LOSS`. **`minSdk` is 21**, so the
+Go-side duck is not dead code; it is reachable on Android 5.0 to 7.1
+and on nothing newer. Any future "verify ducking on a device" needs one
+of those, and asking for a modern phone will not do it.
+
+Two smaller things from the same session.
+
+**A fresh install downloads the real catalog, and it is 209px of the
+screen while it does.** `YJ_CORE_INDEX_URL` is stubbed in
+`dev-headless.sh` and in CI but is real on a device, so the first
+measurement taken was of a screen with `job-band` on it and the art at
+**0px**. That is not a defect and not #172 — it is the environment.
+`explore.Service.StopIndexBuild` and a relaunch is the clean state.
+
+**The first-run wizard does not dismiss when a library appears by a
+route other than its own** (#175) — it was still up, full-screen and
+intercepting pointer events, after `AddLibrary` succeeded through the
+binding, and was gone after a relaunch. Filed.
diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index af2da7f..4af3651 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -646,7 +646,11 @@ rather than renaming them.
   level rather than writing through to the volume, so it cannot
   accumulate and nothing persists or emits a level the user did not
   choose — and it only ever fires below API 26, where the framework
-  does not already duck the app itself.
+  does not already duck the app itself. On that platform "the user's
+  level" is a constant, since #64 pins it at maximum and refuses every
+  way to move it; the duck is the one thing that still may, and it
+  works unchanged because it was always an offset applied *to* that
+  level rather than a write of it.
 - `system` — OS-specific paths (XDG on Linux, `%LOCALAPPDATA%` on Windows).
 - `explore` — Catalog search and browse over `explore_index`. See below.
   Its **shelves** (`shelves.go`) are the page Explore shows before
@@ -1725,12 +1729,67 @@ 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.
-(Only the *bar's* copy: `now-playing-view` renders one and it is
-visible on a phone. #64 asks for it to be gone on Android outright,
-which is a platform question the frontend cannot currently ask.)
+nothing left to disclose. The bar's copy stands down below 600px, which
+is about *room*: five controls and a slider do not fit a 360px bar, and
+`now-playing-view` is where seeking and volume go on a phone.
+
+**Whether there is a volume to control at all is a different question,
+and it is asked of the player** (#64). On Android the hardware keys are
+the volume control and the framework mixes our stream against the
+device level, so `player`'s own level is pinned at maximum, `SetVolume`
+/ `ChangeVolume` / `MuteToggle` are refused, and `volume-control`
+renders `nothing` — in both of its mount points, at every width.
+`mediacontrols`' Android handler implementing no volume callback is the
+same fact one layer down.
+
+Five things about it are load-bearing.
+
+**It could not be a width, and that is not a preference.** Every other
+stand-down rule in this app is keyed on a viewport, because a width is
+what a browser can answer and what every tier can test. This one is a
+property of the build: keyed on width, an Android *tablet* at 600px or
+more draws the bottom bar's slider over a pinned level — a control that
+cannot act, on exactly the platform the rule exists for, which
+`library-status-indicator` already settled is worse than none. The
+same rule is wrong in the other direction below 600px, where a narrow
+desktop window has no hardware keys to fall back on.
+
+**The predicate is named after the capability, not the platform.**
+`SystemOwnsVolume` is what the frontend asks; `platformOwnsVolume` is
+the one build-tagged constant behind it, in two files that declare
+nothing else. That is `mediacontrols`' split with
+`androidpayload.go`'s reasoning: a tagged file is compiled by nothing
+`make lint` or `make test` runs, so everything decidable off a phone is
+decided against `Player.systemVolume`, a field a test sets either way.
+The frontend's absent branch is therefore testable in the component
+tier with a stubbed binding, and the constant itself is covered by a
+source sweep plus, once, a real arm64 device answering `true` — which
+is the only tier that compiles the `android` file at all.
+
+**Mute goes with it, because it is a level of zero by another name** —
+and because with no control rendered it is the one state on such a
+platform the user could not get out of.
+
+**Nothing persists a level nobody chose.** The maximum the player runs
+at is synthetic, so `restoreStateLocked` *remembers* the stored volume
+instead of applying it and `saveState` writes that same value back.
+The alternative — a second query that omits the column — buys nothing
+and is a second write path to keep in step.
+
+**And ducking is untouched, which is what makes the pin safe.**
+`SetDuck` applies its attenuation by re-applying the *user's* level
+through `setVolumeLocked`, so pinning that level to maximum leaves the
+offset arithmetic exactly as it was. It is the only thing that may move
+the output on such a platform, and it is the one volume-shaped path
+that is not refused.
+
+One thing to know before anyone offers to test it on a phone: **the
+duck is unreachable above API 25.** `WailsForegroundService` builds its
+`AudioFocusRequest` without `setWillPauseWhenDucked` from Oreo, so the
+framework attenuates us itself and never sends
+`AUDIOFOCUS_LOSS_TRANSIENT_CAN_DUCK` — a device confirms it by logging
+`requestAudioFocus() … flags=0x0`. `minSdk` is 21, so this is live code
+rather than dead, on Android 5.0 to 7.1 and nowhere else.
 
 **And below 600px that bar carries three controls, not five** (#59).
 Shuffle, repeat and the queue button leave it; what is left is art,
diff --git a/backend/player/player.go b/backend/player/player.go
index 7ff3b5c..1779438 100644
--- a/backend/player/player.go
+++ b/backend/player/player.go
@@ -71,6 +71,19 @@ type Player struct {
 	// not something the user chose.
 	duckAmount float64
 
+	// systemVolume is what SystemOwnsVolume answers: the platform's own
+	// control is the only one, so ours neither acts nor persists.  It is
+	// a field rather than the build constant read directly so that a
+	// test can exercise both sides on any machine.  See systemvolume.go.
+	systemVolume bool
+
+	// storedVolume and storedMuted hold the persisted level as it was
+	// found at restore, for a platform whose volume we do not own: the
+	// maximum we then run at is not a level the user chose, so saveState
+	// writes back what it read rather than overwriting it.
+	storedVolume UserVolume
+	storedMuted  bool
+
 	// trackLengthMs holds the authoritative track duration in
 	// milliseconds, sourced from the database (which uses the
 	// custom header parser).  The go-mp3 decoder's Len() can be
@@ -156,6 +169,8 @@ func NewPlayer(logger *slog.Logger, db *database.DB) *Player {
 		logger:       logger,
 		db:           db,
 		state:        Stopped,
+		systemVolume: platformOwnsVolume,
+		storedVolume: DefaultUserVol,
 		baseStreamer: generators.Silence(-1),
 		format: beep.Format{
 			SampleRate: speakerSampleRate,
@@ -875,6 +890,10 @@ func (p *Player) SetVolume(desiredVolume UserVolume) {
 	p.mu.Lock()
 	defer p.mu.Unlock()
 
+	if p.systemVolume {
+		return
+	}
+
 	p.setVolumeLocked(desiredVolume)
 	p.emitVolumeChanged()
 	p.saveState()
@@ -923,6 +942,10 @@ func (p *Player) ChangeVolume(deltaVolume int) error {
 	p.mu.Lock()
 	defer p.mu.Unlock()
 
+	if p.systemVolume {
+		return nil
+	}
+
 	p.setVolumeLocked(p.getUserVolume() + UserVolume(deltaVolume))
 	p.emitVolumeChanged()
 	p.saveState()
@@ -953,6 +976,14 @@ func (p *Player) MuteToggle() error {
 		return errNoAudioFileLoaded
 	}
 
+	// Mute is a level of zero by another name, so it goes with the rest
+	// of the volume where the system owns it -- and it would be the one
+	// state on such a platform the user could not get out of, since with
+	// no control rendered there is nothing left to un-mute with.
+	if p.systemVolume {
+		return nil
+	}
+
 	speaker.Lock()
 	p.volume.Silent = !p.volume.Silent
 	speaker.Unlock()
@@ -1403,7 +1434,15 @@ func (p *Player) saveState() {
 	volume := int64(DefaultUserVol)
 	muted := false
 
-	if p.volume != nil {
+	switch {
+	case p.systemVolume:
+		// The maximum this platform runs at is not a level anybody
+		// chose, so it is not one to remember.  Writing back what
+		// restore found keeps the row a description of the user's
+		// setting without needing a second query that omits the column.
+		volume = int64(p.storedVolume)
+		muted = p.storedMuted
+	case p.volume != nil:
 		volume = int64(p.getUserVolume())
 		muted = p.volume.Silent
 	}
@@ -1487,11 +1526,20 @@ func (p *Player) restoreStateLocked() {
 		}
 	}
 
-	vol := clampVolume(UserVolume(state.Volume))
-	p.setVolumeLocked(vol)
+	if p.systemVolume {
+		// Remembered, not applied: the device's keys are the volume
+		// control here, so the player runs wide open and hands the
+		// stored level back untouched at the next save.
+		p.storedVolume = clampVolume(UserVolume(state.Volume))
+		p.storedMuted = state.Muted
+		p.setVolumeLocked(MaxUserVol)
+	} else {
+		vol := clampVolume(UserVolume(state.Volume))
+		p.setVolumeLocked(vol)
 
-	if state.Muted {
-		p.volume.Silent = true
+		if state.Muted {
+			p.volume.Silent = true
+		}
 	}
 
 	// Restore last track if the file still exists.
@@ -1531,8 +1579,9 @@ func (p *Player) restoreStateLocked() {
 	}
 
 	p.logger.Info("Player state restored",
-		"volume", vol,
-		"muted", state.Muted,
+		"volume", p.getUserVolume(),
+		"muted", p.volume.Silent,
+		"systemVolume", p.systemVolume,
 		"trackPath", state.LastTrackPath,
 		"positionSeconds", state.LastPositionSeconds,
 	)
diff --git a/backend/player/systemvolume.go b/backend/player/systemvolume.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b52b6b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/player/systemvolume.go
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+package player
+
+// Who owns the volume, and what follows when it is not us.
+//
+// On Android the hardware keys *are* the volume control and the
+// framework mixes our stream against the device level, so a second
+// control inside the app is a slider that moves something the user
+// already moved (#64).  Where that is true the player's own level sits
+// at maximum, nothing changes it, and nothing persists it.
+//
+// **The predicate is named after the capability, not the platform.**
+// The frontend asks "is there a volume for me to control", which is a
+// question about this build; asking "is this a phone" instead would
+// key the answer to a viewport, and an Android tablet at 600px or more
+// would then draw the bottom bar's slider over a level pinned at
+// maximum -- a control that cannot act, which is the thing
+// `library-status-indicator` already settled is worse than none.
+//
+// **Only `platformOwnsVolume` is behind a build tag**, in two files
+// that declare nothing else.  A tagged file is compiled by nothing
+// `make lint` or `make test` runs and is untestable off a phone, which
+// is the reasoning `mediacontrols/androidpayload.go` states for
+// keeping its contract out of one -- so everything decidable here is
+// decided against `Player.systemVolume`, a field a test sets either
+// way, and the tag decides only what that field starts as.
+//
+// The one thing this must not disturb is ducking.  `SetDuck` applies
+// its attenuation by re-applying the *user's* level through
+// `setVolumeLocked`, so pinning that level to maximum leaves the
+// offset arithmetic exactly as it was: an OS asking us to get out of
+// the way of a navigation prompt is not the user setting a volume, and
+// it is the only thing that may move the output on such a platform.
+
+// SystemOwnsVolume reports whether the platform's own control is the
+// only volume control there is, so this app neither offers one nor
+// remembers a level.
+//
+// It is bound: the frontend renders no `<volume-control>` when it is
+// true, at any width.
+func (p *Player) SystemOwnsVolume() bool {
+	return p.systemVolume
+}
diff --git a/backend/player/systemvolume_android.go b/backend/player/systemvolume_android.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52036c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/player/systemvolume_android.go
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+//go:build android
+
+package player
+
+// platformOwnsVolume is true on Android: volume is the device's, set
+// with the hardware keys, and `mediacontrols`' Android handler
+// implements no volume callback for the same reason.
+//
+// See systemvolume.go for why this constant is the whole of what a
+// build tag decides here.
+const platformOwnsVolume = true
diff --git a/backend/player/systemvolume_other.go b/backend/player/systemvolume_other.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f23124d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/player/systemvolume_other.go
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+//go:build !android
+
+package player
+
+// platformOwnsVolume is false everywhere but Android: a desktop mixer
+// is per-application, so our level is the one the user reaches for.
+//
+// See systemvolume.go for why this constant is the whole of what a
+// build tag decides here.
+const platformOwnsVolume = false
diff --git a/backend/player/systemvolume_test.go b/backend/player/systemvolume_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1435517
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/player/systemvolume_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,215 @@
+package player
+
+import (
+	"log/slog"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/gopxl/beep/v2/effects"
+
+	"yellowjacket/backend/database"
+)
+
+// pinnedPlayer is a player on a platform whose volume belongs to the
+// device.  The field is set rather than the build constant read,
+// because the constant is true on exactly one platform and no tier
+// here runs on it -- see systemvolume.go.
+func pinnedPlayer(t *testing.T, db *database.DB) *Player {
+	t.Helper()
+
+	p := NewPlayer(slog.Default(), db)
+	p.systemVolume = true
+	p.volume = &effects.Volume{Base: 2}
+	p.setVolumeLocked(MaxUserVol)
+
+	return p
+}
+
+// TestSystemVolumeRefusesEveryWayToChangeTheLevel is the first half of
+// #64: where the device owns the volume, ours sits at maximum and none
+// of the three routes to a level moves it.  Mute is in that list
+// because it is a level of zero by another name, and because with no
+// control rendered it is the one state on such a platform there would
+// be nothing to get out of.
+func TestSystemVolumeRefusesEveryWayToChangeTheLevel(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	p := pinnedPlayer(t, nil)
+
+	if !p.SystemOwnsVolume() {
+		t.Fatal("SystemOwnsVolume() = false on a pinned player")
+	}
+
+	if got := p.getUserVolume(); got != MaxUserVol {
+		t.Errorf("starting volume = %d, want %d", got, MaxUserVol)
+	}
+
+	p.SetVolume(20)
+
+	if got := p.getUserVolume(); got != MaxUserVol {
+		t.Errorf("volume after SetVolume(20) = %d, want %d", got, MaxUserVol)
+	}
+
+	if err := p.ChangeVolume(-30); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("ChangeVolume: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	if got := p.getUserVolume(); got != MaxUserVol {
+		t.Errorf("volume after ChangeVolume(-30) = %d, want %d", got, MaxUserVol)
+	}
+
+	if err := p.MuteToggle(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("MuteToggle: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	if p.volume.Silent {
+		t.Error("MuteToggle silenced a player whose volume the system owns")
+	}
+}
+
+// TestAnUnpinnedPlayerStillChangesItsVolume is the other side of the
+// same switch.  Without it the test above passes on a player that
+// refuses everything, which is what a mis-wired field would produce.
+func TestAnUnpinnedPlayerStillChangesItsVolume(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	p := NewPlayer(slog.Default(), nil)
+	p.volume = &effects.Volume{Base: 2}
+	p.setVolumeLocked(MaxUserVol)
+
+	if p.SystemOwnsVolume() {
+		t.Fatal("SystemOwnsVolume() = true off Android")
+	}
+
+	p.SetVolume(20)
+
+	if got := p.getUserVolume(); got != 20 {
+		t.Errorf("volume after SetVolume(20) = %d, want 20", got)
+	}
+
+	if err := p.MuteToggle(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("MuteToggle: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	if !p.volume.Silent {
+		t.Error("MuteToggle did not silence an ordinary player")
+	}
+}
+
+// TestSystemVolumeStillDucks is the issue's second Finding, made a
+// test: pinning the user's level must leave the OS's attenuation
+// working, because a duck is not a volume the user chose and is the
+// only thing that may move the output on such a platform.
+func TestSystemVolumeStillDucks(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	p := pinnedPlayer(t, nil)
+	open := p.volume.Volume
+
+	p.SetDuck(true)
+
+	if p.volume.Volume >= open {
+		t.Errorf(
+			"ducked output = %v, want less than %v", p.volume.Volume, open,
+		)
+	}
+
+	if got := p.getUserVolume(); got != MaxUserVol {
+		t.Errorf("user volume while ducked = %d, want %d", got, MaxUserVol)
+	}
+
+	// A refused SetVolume must not disturb the offset either: it
+	// returns before setVolumeLocked, which is what re-applies it.
+	ducked := p.volume.Volume
+
+	p.SetVolume(10)
+
+	if p.volume.Volume != ducked {
+		t.Errorf(
+			"output after a refused SetVolume = %v, want %v",
+			p.volume.Volume, ducked,
+		)
+	}
+
+	p.SetDuck(false)
+
+	if p.volume.Volume != open {
+		t.Errorf("output after unduck = %v, want %v", p.volume.Volume, open)
+	}
+}
+
+// TestSystemVolumeWritesBackTheLevelItFound is the rest of the
+// Direction: "make sure nothing writes a persisted volume from that
+// platform".  The maximum the player runs at is synthetic, so saving
+// must not record it over whatever the row already said.
+func TestSystemVolumeWritesBackTheLevelItFound(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	db := database.NewTestDB(t)
+
+	// A level set by some earlier, unpinned session.
+	writer := NewPlayer(slog.Default(), db)
+	writer.volume = &effects.Volume{Base: 2}
+	writer.setVolumeLocked(30)
+	writer.SaveState()
+
+	p := pinnedPlayer(t, db)
+	p.RestoreState()
+
+	if got := p.getUserVolume(); got != MaxUserVol {
+		t.Errorf("restored volume = %d, want %d (the level is pinned)", got, MaxUserVol)
+	}
+
+	if p.volume.Silent {
+		t.Error("restore muted a player whose volume the system owns")
+	}
+
+	p.SaveState()
+
+	state, err := db.Queries.GetPlayerState(db.Ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("GetPlayerState: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	if state.Volume != 30 {
+		t.Errorf("persisted volume = %d, want 30 (untouched)", state.Volume)
+	}
+}
+
+// TestPlatformVolumeOwnershipIsDeclaredOncePerPlatform sweeps the
+// source, because the pair of tagged files is the one thing here no
+// tier compiles both halves of: `make lint` and `make test` build the
+// `!android` side only, so a deleted or edited android file fails
+// nothing until somebody has a phone in their hand.
+func TestPlatformVolumeOwnershipIsDeclaredOncePerPlatform(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	want := map[string]string{
+		"systemvolume_other.go":   "const platformOwnsVolume = false",
+		"systemvolume_android.go": "const platformOwnsVolume = true",
+	}
+
+	tags := map[string]string{
+		"systemvolume_other.go":   "//go:build !android",
+		"systemvolume_android.go": "//go:build android",
+	}
+
+	for name, decl := range want {
+		src, err := os.ReadFile(filepath.Join(".", name))
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Errorf("%s: %v", name, err)
+
+			continue
+		}
+
+		if !strings.Contains(string(src), decl) {
+			t.Errorf("%s does not declare %q", name, decl)
+		}
+
+		if !strings.Contains(string(src), tags[name]) {
+			t.Errorf("%s does not carry %q", name, tags[name])
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/e2e/specs/phone-shell.spec.ts b/e2e/specs/phone-shell.spec.ts
index 897f998..8969511 100644
--- a/e2e/specs/phone-shell.spec.ts
+++ b/e2e/specs/phone-shell.spec.ts
@@ -130,6 +130,25 @@ test.describe('the shell on a phone', () => {
     // are here, and they are the *same* components -- this view
     // composes the transport rather than reimplementing it.
     await expect(app.locator('now-playing-view seek-bar')).toBeVisible();
+
+    // Volume is here **because the player says there is one** (#64),
+    // not because this is a phone. This tier is the platform that owns
+    // its own volume, so what it can assert is that the control's
+    // presence follows that answer -- an inverted polarity in
+    // `volume-style-store` fails here and in `bottom-bar.spec.ts`, and
+    // the *absent* branch is checked in the component tier, where the
+    // binding can be stubbed. Nothing here can reach the Android side.
+    const systemOwns = await app.evaluate(
+      async () =>
+        (await window.__yjEvents.call(
+          'player.Player.SystemOwnsVolume',
+          [],
+          5_000,
+        )) as boolean,
+    );
+
+    expect(systemOwns, 'this platform should own its own volume').toBe(false);
+
     await expect(app.locator('now-playing-view volume-control')).toBeVisible();
 
     // Back goes where the user came from, through the nav stack.
diff --git a/frontend/bindings/yellowjacket/backend/player/player.ts b/frontend/bindings/yellowjacket/backend/player/player.ts
index aa95f8e..dd8c9a7 100644
--- a/frontend/bindings/yellowjacket/backend/player/player.ts
+++ b/frontend/bindings/yellowjacket/backend/player/player.ts
@@ -142,6 +142,18 @@ export function SetVolume(desiredVolume: $models.UserVolume): $CancellablePromis
     return $Call.ByID(1375836663, desiredVolume);
 }
 
+/**
+ * SystemOwnsVolume reports whether the platform's own control is the
+ * only volume control there is, so this app neither offers one nor
+ * remembers a level.
+ * 
+ * It is bound: the frontend renders no `<volume-control>` when it is
+ * true, at any width.
+ */
+export function SystemOwnsVolume(): $CancellablePromise<boolean> {
+    return $Call.ByID(1027623185);
+}
+
 /**
  * TrackLengthInSeconds returns the duration of the current track.
  */
diff --git a/frontend/index.css b/frontend/index.css
index a42aa45..30172ae 100644
--- a/frontend/index.css
+++ b/frontend/index.css
@@ -522,16 +522,20 @@ body div.sidebar {
     }
 
     /* 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.
+       is about room: five controls and a slider do not fit a 360px
+       bar, and the full-screen now-playing view is where seeking and
+       volume go on a phone. 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. */
+       **This rule used to carry the platform argument too, and no
+       longer does** (#64). "The hardware keys own the volume" is not a
+       width: it is false of a narrow desktop window and true of an
+       Android tablet, which this selector gets backwards both ways.
+       The player answers it now — `SystemOwnsVolume` — and
+       `volume-control` renders nothing when it is true, at every
+       width and in both of its mount points. What is left here is the
+       question a stylesheet can actually answer. */
     .bottom-bar volume-control {
         display: none;
     }
diff --git a/frontend/src/components/audio-player/volume-control/volume-control.ts b/frontend/src/components/audio-player/volume-control/volume-control.ts
index 1ad0ada..7dd070d 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/audio-player/volume-control/volume-control.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/components/audio-player/volume-control/volume-control.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { LitElement, html, css } from 'lit';
+import { LitElement, html, css, nothing } from 'lit';
 import { customElement, state } from 'lit/decorators.js';
 import '@awesome.me/webawesome/dist/components/icon/icon.js';
 import '@awesome.me/webawesome/dist/components/slider/slider.js';
@@ -27,6 +27,26 @@ export class VolumeControl extends LitElement {
   @state()
   private popup = volumeStyleStore.popup;
 
+  /**
+   * Whether there is a volume of ours to control at all (#64).
+   *
+   * The decision is made here rather than at either mount point,
+   * because there are two -- the bottom bar's copy lives in
+   * `index.html`, which has no module scope to make it conditional --
+   * and one of them is a control the shell cannot un-render. So the
+   * control answers for itself, and the bar and the phone's
+   * full-screen transport get the same answer without either knowing
+   * the question exists.
+   *
+   * It renders `nothing` *and* hides the host: an empty shadow root is
+   * what stops a positional or role query finding a button that cannot
+   * act, and `:host([hidden])` is what stops the element occupying a
+   * flex item's worth of the transport -- the `:host` display above
+   * outranks the UA's `[hidden]` rule, so it has to be said.
+   */
+  @state()
+  private available = volumeStyleStore.available;
+
   private unsubscribeStyle?: () => void;
 
   // Locally-tracked volume while the user is actively dragging or scrolling.
@@ -43,6 +63,13 @@ export class VolumeControl extends LitElement {
       align-items: center;
     }
 
+    /* See the available field. A gap is only drawn between boxes,
+       so a hidden host costs its parent nothing -- which is where the
+       29px this gives back to Now Playing comes from (#172). */
+    :host([hidden]) {
+      display: none;
+    }
+
     button {
       background: none;
       border: none;
@@ -154,12 +181,15 @@ export class VolumeControl extends LitElement {
 
     this.unsubscribeStyle = volumeStyleStore.subscribe(() => {
       this.popup = volumeStyleStore.popup;
+      this.setAvailable(volumeStyleStore.available);
 
       // 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();
     });
 
+    this.setAvailable(volumeStyleStore.available);
+
     void volumeStyleStore.init();
   }
 
@@ -233,7 +263,25 @@ export class VolumeControl extends LitElement {
   // RENDER
   // ===================================================================
 
+  /**
+   * `hidden` is set imperatively rather than reflected from the state,
+   * because it has to be on the *host* and a `@state` does not reflect.
+   * It is the right attribute besides: it takes the element out of the
+   * accessibility tree as well as out of the layout.
+   */
+  private setAvailable(available: boolean) {
+    this.available = available;
+    this.hidden = !available;
+
+    // A popup left open when the control goes away would keep its
+    // document click listener installed for markup that no longer
+    // renders.
+    if (!available) this.closeSlider();
+  }
+
   override render() {
+    if (!this.available) return nothing;
+
     const muted = this.player.muted;
 
     // Inline, the icon is the mute toggle rather than a disclosure:
diff --git a/frontend/src/components/now-playing-view/now-playing-view.ts b/frontend/src/components/now-playing-view/now-playing-view.ts
index ab71ded..cbf1d1d 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/now-playing-view/now-playing-view.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/components/now-playing-view/now-playing-view.ts
@@ -343,6 +343,12 @@ export class NowPlayingView extends LitElement {
                      a media query because the bottom bar wants a
                      different answer at this same viewport. -->
                 <player-controls context="full"></player-controls>
+                <!-- Rendered unconditionally and absent on its own
+                     terms where the device owns the volume (#64): the
+                     control asks the player, not this view and not the
+                     viewport. A hidden host draws no gap, so that is
+                     29px of a 439px screen back to the album art
+                     (#172). -->
                 <volume-control></volume-control>
             </div>
         `;
diff --git a/frontend/src/store/volume-style-store.ts b/frontend/src/store/volume-style-store.ts
index 88ee68a..89ef98a 100644
--- a/frontend/src/store/volume-style-store.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/store/volume-style-store.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { EventsOn } from '@runtime/runtime';
 import { GetPopupVolume } from '@go/config/config.js';
+import { SystemOwnsVolume } from '@go/player/player.js';
 import { Events } from '../events';
 
 type Subscriber = () => void;
@@ -28,10 +29,37 @@ type Subscriber = () => void;
  * 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.
+ *
+ * **`available` is the question one step earlier — whether there is a
+ * volume of ours to draw at all (#64).** On Android the hardware keys
+ * are the volume control and the backend pins its own level at
+ * maximum, so a slider here would move nothing.
+ *
+ * It is asked of the *player* rather than of the viewport, and that is
+ * the whole design decision. Every other stand-down rule in this app
+ * is a width, because a width is what a browser can answer and what
+ * every tier can test — but this one is a property of the build. Keyed
+ * on width instead, an Android tablet at 600px or more would draw the
+ * bottom bar's slider over a pinned level: a control that cannot act,
+ * which `library-status-indicator` settled is worse than none.
+ *
+ * It lives beside `popup` because both answer "what presentation does
+ * the volume control get", both readers are the same two components,
+ * and "none" is a presentation. A second store would be a second
+ * subscription in the same `connectedCallback` saying the same thing.
+ *
+ * The initial value is `true` on the same first-frame rule: there is a
+ * volume on every platform but one, and the platform that pins it sees
+ * the control once at boot and never again in the session — the answer
+ * cannot change while the app runs, so by the time the lazily-mounted
+ * now-playing view exists it has long been settled by the bar's own
+ * copy.
  */
 class VolumeStyleStore {
     private value = false;
 
+    private hasVolume = true;
+
     private loaded = false;
 
     private subscribers = new Set<Subscriber>();
@@ -47,13 +75,21 @@ class VolumeStyleStore {
         return this.value;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Whether this app has a volume of its own to control. False where
+     * the device owns it; see the class comment.
+     */
+    get available(): boolean {
+        return this.hasVolume;
+    }
+
     /** Reads the setting once. Safe to call from every mount. */
     async init(): Promise<void> {
         if (this.loaded) return;
 
         this.loaded = true;
 
-        await this.refresh();
+        await Promise.all([this.refreshAvailability(), this.refresh()]);
     }
 
     subscribe(fn: Subscriber): () => void {
@@ -77,6 +113,28 @@ class VolumeStyleStore {
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Asked once, not on `GeneralConfigChanged`: this is a property of
+     * the platform the binary was built for and cannot change while
+     * the app is running.
+     */
+    private async refreshAvailability(): Promise<void> {
+        try {
+            const owned = await SystemOwnsVolume();
+
+            if (owned === !this.hasVolume) return;
+
+            this.hasVolume = !owned;
+            this.notify();
+        } catch (err) {
+            // The control renders, which is the answer on every
+            // platform but one and is the recoverable way to be wrong:
+            // a working control nobody needs, rather than a missing one
+            // somebody does.
+            console.error('failed to ask who owns the volume', err);
+        }
+    }
+
     private notify(): void {
         for (const fn of this.subscribers) fn();
     }
diff --git a/frontend/test/components/volume-ownership.test.ts b/frontend/test/components/volume-ownership.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..00fb6a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/frontend/test/components/volume-ownership.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+/**
+ * Who owns the volume, and what the control does when it is not us
+ * (#64).
+ *
+ * **This is the tier that can exercise the Android branch**, and it is
+ * the reason the predicate is a backend answer rather than a build tag
+ * the frontend cannot see: `SystemOwnsVolume` is a stub here, so the
+ * "no volume" rendering is checked on an ordinary Linux CI runner with
+ * no device anywhere. What no tier here can check is the *constant*
+ * behind it, which `TestPlatformVolumeOwnershipIsDeclaredOncePerPlatform`
+ * sweeps the Go source for instead.
+ *
+ * It is a file of its own because `volumeStyleStore` asks once and
+ * latches — the answer is a property of the binary and cannot change
+ * while the app runs, so there is deliberately no event that refreshes
+ * it. Vitest gives each file its own module registry, which is what
+ * lets the stub be in place before the singleton is first touched.
+ * The *available* case is the rest of `transport.test.ts`, which mounts
+ * the same element under the default stub.
+ */
+import { describe, expect, it, beforeEach } from 'vitest';
+
+import '@components/audio-player/volume-control/volume-control';
+import '@components/now-playing-view/now-playing-view';
+import { Events } from '../../src/events';
+import { emit, resetHarness, stub } from '@test/support/harness';
+import { fixture, shadow, shadowAll } from '@test/support/render';
+import type { TrackInfo } from '@store/player-store';
+
+const TRACK: TrackInfo = {
+  fileName: 'tideline.mp3',
+  filePath: '/music/tideline.mp3',
+  trackLength: 245,
+  seekPosition: 0,
+  state: 'playing',
+  title: 'Tideline',
+  artist: 'Sea Change',
+  album: 'Ebb',
+  coverArt: '',
+  coverArtSmall: '',
+  coverArtMedium: '',
+  coverArtLarge: '',
+  trackChangeId: 1,
+  artistMbid: '',
+  releaseGroupMbid: '',
+  recordingMbid: '',
+};
+
+describe('a platform whose volume we do not own', () => {
+  beforeEach(async () => {
+    resetHarness();
+    stub('player.Player.SystemOwnsVolume', true);
+    stub('config.Config.GetPopupVolume', false);
+
+    // The store latches on the first mount; do it here so every test
+    // below sees a settled answer rather than the first frame.
+    const warm = await fixture('volume-control');
+
+    await warm.updateComplete;
+  });
+
+  it('renders no control at all, and no empty shadow root to find', async () => {
+    const el = await fixture('volume-control');
+
+    await el.updateComplete;
+
+    // Both halves matter. An empty shadow root is what stops a
+    // positional or by-role query finding a button that cannot act;
+    // `hidden` is what stops the host taking a flex item's worth of
+    // space in the transport it sits in.
+    expect(shadowAll(el, 'button')).toHaveLength(0);
+    expect(shadowAll(el, 'wa-slider')).toHaveLength(0);
+    expect(el.hidden, 'the host is not hidden').toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('leaves the rest of the phone transport alone', async () => {
+    emit(Events.TrackChanged, TRACK);
+
+    const view = await fixture('now-playing-view');
+
+    await view.updateComplete;
+
+    // Seeking and the transport buttons are not volume, and #64 is
+    // allowed to remove one control, not to thin the screen out.
+    expect(shadow(view, 'seek-bar')).not.toBeNull();
+    expect(shadow(view, 'player-controls')).not.toBeNull();
+
+    const volume = shadow(view, 'volume-control') as HTMLElement | null;
+
+    expect(volume, 'the element is still mounted').not.toBeNull();
+    expect(volume!.hidden, 'a mounted volume-control is not hidden').toBe(true);
+  });
+});