diff --git a/camelid-desktop/Info.plist b/camelid-desktop/Info.plist
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..08a1e096
--- /dev/null
+++ b/camelid-desktop/Info.plist
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
+<plist version="1.0">
+<dict>
+  <key>NSRemovableVolumesUsageDescription</key>
+  <string>Camelid reads local model files from folders you select on external drives.</string>
+</dict>
+</plist>
diff --git a/camelid-desktop/tauri.conf.json b/camelid-desktop/tauri.conf.json
index f60f6b49..e1681508 100644
--- a/camelid-desktop/tauri.conf.json
+++ b/camelid-desktop/tauri.conf.json
@@ -18,9 +18,7 @@
         "minHeight": 560,
         "center": true,
         "backgroundColor": "#0e1216",
-        "url": "index.html",
-        "titleBarStyle": "Overlay",
-        "hiddenTitle": true
+        "url": "index.html"
       }
     ],
     "security": {
diff --git a/frontend/src/App.jsx b/frontend/src/App.jsx
index cde0103c..4364548d 100644
--- a/frontend/src/App.jsx
+++ b/frontend/src/App.jsx
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ import { Notice } from './components/ui/Notice'
 import { ConfirmDialog } from './components/ui/ConfirmDialog'
 import { isFirstRunHost } from './lib/firstRunActivation'
 import { formatPreview, formatSidebarDate } from './lib/formatters'
-import { hasOverlayTitleBar } from './lib/desktopShell'
 import { useDashboardData } from './hooks/useDashboardData'
 import { useBackendLauncher } from './hooks/useBackendLauncher'
 import { useNotice } from './hooks/useNotice'
@@ -246,14 +245,10 @@ function App() {
     // eslint-disable-next-line react-hooks/exhaustive-deps
   }, [loadDashboard])
 
-  /* Above the loading early-return: every hook must run on every render, and
-     the shell this window lives in cannot change while it is open. */
-  const [overlayTitleBar] = useState(hasOverlayTitleBar)
-
   if (!dashboard) {
     return (
-      <div className="loading-shell">
-        <div className="loading-shell-stack">
+      <div className="loading-shell" data-tauri-drag-region>
+        <div className="loading-shell-stack" data-tauri-drag-region>
           <Notice notice={notice} tone={noticeTone} />
           <div>Loading Camelid…</div>
         </div>
@@ -266,17 +261,10 @@ function App() {
     sidebarCollapsed ? 'is-collapsed' : '',
     mobileNavOpen ? 'is-mobile-open' : '',
     DEMO_UI ? 'is-demo' : '',
-    overlayTitleBar ? 'has-overlay-chrome' : '',
   ].filter(Boolean).join(' ')
 
   return (
     <div className={shellClasses}>
-      {/* macOS desktop only: the window draws no title bar of its own, so the
-          traffic lights float over the top-left of our content. This strip is
-          the room they sit in and the surface the window is dragged by —
-          without it the app showed the OS bar stacked above our own header,
-          which is what makes an app look like a web page in a frame. */}
-      {overlayTitleBar && <div className="app-drag-strip" data-tauri-drag-region />}
       {!DEMO_UI && (
         <SidebarRail
           collapsed={!isMobile && sidebarCollapsed}
diff --git a/frontend/src/lib/desktopShell.js b/frontend/src/lib/desktopShell.js
index 483d87c8..a12ced3d 100644
--- a/frontend/src/lib/desktopShell.js
+++ b/frontend/src/lib/desktopShell.js
@@ -1,25 +1,5 @@
-/* Desktop-shell detection, shared so the browser build never pays for it.
-
-   Two different questions get asked about the desktop app and they are not the
-   same: whether we are inside Tauri at all (BackendBanner asks this, to know a
-   page cannot restart its own engine), and whether this window draws its own
-   title bar. Only macOS uses the overlay style, where the traffic lights float
-   over our content instead of sitting in a strip the OS owns — so only macOS
-   needs the window to reserve room for them and provide a drag region. */
+/* Desktop-shell detection, shared so the browser build never pays for it. */
 export function isDesktopShell() {
   if (typeof window === 'undefined') return false
   return Boolean(window.__TAURI__?.core?.invoke)
 }
-
-export function isMacPlatform() {
-  if (typeof navigator === 'undefined') return false
-  const platform = navigator.userAgentData?.platform || navigator.platform || ''
-  return /mac/i.test(platform)
-}
-
-/* True only where the window chrome is ours to draw. Keep this the single
-   source: styling that assumes the traffic lights are overlapping content must
-   never switch on in the browser build, where there are none. */
-export function hasOverlayTitleBar() {
-  return isDesktopShell() && isMacPlatform()
-}
diff --git a/frontend/src/styles/shell.css b/frontend/src/styles/shell.css
index 8d269f53..5f01b926 100644
--- a/frontend/src/styles/shell.css
+++ b/frontend/src/styles/shell.css
@@ -13,23 +13,6 @@
 .camelid-app.is-collapsed { grid-template-columns: var(--rail-collapsed-width) minmax(0, 1fr); }
 .camelid-app.is-demo { grid-template-columns: minmax(0, 1fr); }
 
-/* ---- macOS desktop window chrome ----
-   With the overlay title bar the OS draws no bar of its own, so the traffic
-   lights land on top of whatever occupies the window's top-left — the sidebar
-   brand row. The shell gains one title-bar's worth of room at the top and a
-   transparent strip across it that the window can be dragged by. Only children
-   carrying data-tauri-drag-region drag, so every control below stays clickable.
-   Applied nowhere but the macOS desktop shell; the browser build never sees it. */
-.camelid-app.has-overlay-chrome { padding-top: var(--overlay-titlebar-height); }
-.app-drag-strip {
-  position: fixed;
-  inset: 0 0 auto 0;
-  height: var(--overlay-titlebar-height);
-  z-index: 60;
-  /* Same ground as the shell so the strip reads as window chrome, not a gap. */
-  background: var(--color-canvas);
-}
-
 /* ---- Main column ---- */
 .camelid-main {
   display: flex;
diff --git a/src/api/mod.rs b/src/api/mod.rs
index cb370d9d..f4caaf48 100644
--- a/src/api/mod.rs
+++ b/src/api/mod.rs
@@ -32917,8 +32917,14 @@ async fn local_models(
                         generation_capable: false,
                         context_length: None,
                     };
-                    match read_metadata(&path) {
-                        Ok(gguf) => {
+                    let metadata_path = path.clone();
+                    let parsed = tokio::time::timeout(
+                        Duration::from_secs(5),
+                        tokio::task::spawn_blocking(move || read_metadata(&metadata_path)),
+                    )
+                    .await;
+                    match parsed {
+                        Ok(Ok(Ok(gguf))) => {
                             c.embedding_capable = is_embedding_model(&gguf);
                             c.generation_capable = is_generation_model(&gguf);
                             let quant = crate::runnable::headline_quant_of(&gguf);
@@ -32951,7 +32957,18 @@ async fn local_models(
                                 }
                             }
                         }
-                        Err(err) => c.admission_reason = Some(format!("GGUF parse failed: {err}")),
+                        Ok(Ok(Err(err))) => {
+                            c.admission_reason = Some(format!("GGUF parse failed: {err}"));
+                        }
+                        Ok(Err(err)) => {
+                            c.admission_reason = Some(format!("GGUF metadata task failed: {err}"));
+                        }
+                        Err(_) => {
+                            c.admission_reason = Some(
+                                "GGUF metadata scan timed out; removable-volume access may still need approval"
+                                    .to_string(),
+                            );
+                        }
                     }
                     local_meta_cache()
                         .lock()