diff --git a/app/page.tsx b/app/page.tsx
index 71005da..24c38d8 100644
--- a/app/page.tsx
+++ b/app/page.tsx
@@ -284,6 +284,15 @@ const loadItems = useCallback(async (showLoading = true) => {
       // visual record. We do this AFTER the status flip so a
       // failure here doesn't strand the item in `assigned` —
       // the collection is the more important state change.
+      //
+      // The item is cleared off the list either way. An earlier
+      // version returned early on upload failure, which left a
+      // successfully-collected item sitting on screen still looking
+      // un-collected; the driver re-collected it, re-attempted the
+      // same oversized upload, and one record picked up 29 failed
+      // attempts in a single morning on 2026-10-12.
+      let photoFailed = false;
+      let photoFailure = '';
       if (photo) {
         try {
           await uploadOrderItemAttachment({
@@ -293,29 +302,37 @@ const loadItems = useCallback(async (showLoading = true) => {
             notes: notes || undefined,
           });
         } catch (uploadErr) {
-          // Status already changed. Surface the failure so the
-          // driver knows the photo did NOT persist (a success
-          // toast here would be a lie). Known PB bug: image/* mime
-          // detection rejects camera JPEGs — until that server
-          // side detection is fixed, photos will keep failing.
+          // The collection itself succeeded, so this is a warning,
+          // not a failure — but the driver must still know the photo
+          // did NOT persist. A success toast here would be a lie.
+          //
+          // (The "Known PB bug: image/* mime detection rejects camera
+          // JPEGs" note that used to live here was wrong: PB's own
+          // logs show every attempt failing as `400 unexpected EOF`
+          // — the multipart body truncated in transit, not a format
+          // rejection. `order_item_attachements` has mimeTypes=null,
+          // so nothing was checking the type at all. Fixed by
+          // compressing the photo client-side in lib/image.ts.)
+          photoFailed = true;
+          photoFailure = uploadErr instanceof Error ? uploadErr.message : 'unknown error';
           console.error('Photo upload failed:', uploadErr);
-          const reason =
-            uploadErr instanceof Error ? uploadErr.message : 'unknown error';
-          showToast(
-            `Item collected — but photo upload failed (${reason})`,
-            'warning'
-          );
-          return; // skip the success toast that follows
         }
       }
 
       setItems((prev) => prev.filter((i) => i.id !== item.id));
       setShowCollectModal(false);
-      showToast(
-        photo
-          ? 'Collection completed · photo uploaded'
-          : 'Collection completed successfully'
-      );
+      if (photoFailed) {
+        showToast(
+          `Collected, but the photo didn't upload (${photoFailure}) — add it from the office.`,
+          'warning',
+        );
+      } else {
+        showToast(
+          photo
+            ? 'Collection completed · photo uploaded'
+            : 'Collection completed successfully',
+        );
+      }
     } catch (err) {
       showToast('Failed to update collection', 'error');
     }
@@ -336,6 +353,21 @@ const loadItems = useCallback(async (showLoading = true) => {
       // rather than just disappearing.
       showToast('Problem reported — item sent back to the pool', 'warning');
     } catch (err) {
+      // PB puts the actual reason in `response.data` keyed by field
+      // name — the top-level `message` is always the useless
+      // "Something went wrong while processing your request." A 400 here
+      // is almost always a select-field value the schema doesn't allow
+      // (this cost us every problem report on 2026-10-14: problem_type
+      // was missing out_of_stock/partial_stock/quality_issue/wrong_item).
+      // Logging only the message hid that for months.
+      const detail = (err as { response?: { data?: Record<string, { message?: string }> } })
+        ?.response?.data;
+      console.error(
+        'Failed to report problem:',
+        item.id,
+        problemType,
+        detail ? JSON.stringify(detail) : err,
+      );
       showToast('Failed to report problem', 'error');
     }
   };