diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yml b/.github/workflows/build.yml
index fadfc62..45c31f1 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yml
@@ -112,6 +112,12 @@ jobs:
         working-directory: windows
         run: node --experimental-strip-types scripts/verify-timing.mjs
 
+      # A refusal that gets overwritten by the disconnect it caused is only
+      # reachable with two receivers and one Mac, which is how it reached a user.
+      - name: Verify sender refusals survive the disconnect
+        working-directory: windows
+        run: node --experimental-strip-types scripts/verify-refusals.mjs
+
       # Signing only when the secrets exist. A fork PR has none, and must still
       # get a green build rather than a confusing failure.
       - name: Import Developer ID certificate
@@ -201,6 +207,7 @@ jobs:
           node scripts/verify-vectors.mjs
           node --experimental-strip-types scripts/verify-window-states.mjs
           node --experimental-strip-types scripts/verify-timing.mjs
+          node --experimental-strip-types scripts/verify-refusals.mjs
 
       # Ahead of the bundle step on purpose. The Rust backend uses Windows-only
       # APIs (DXGI Desktop Duplication, Task 8.1) that cannot be compiled on a
diff --git a/windows/scripts/verify-refusals.mjs b/windows/scripts/verify-refusals.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..380d74c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/windows/scripts/verify-refusals.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+/**
+ * Explanations that have to outlive the disconnect that causes them.
+ *
+ * Run with `node --experimental-strip-types scripts/verify-refusals.mjs`.
+ *
+ * This exists because of a real session lost to it. The Mac refuses a second
+ * receiver with `busy` and then closes the socket. The receiver displayed the
+ * refusal correctly — and roughly a hundred milliseconds later the disconnect
+ * handler wrote "Disconnected. Reconnecting…" straight over it. What was left
+ * was a spinner that never resolved, which reads as a broken app rather than an
+ * occupied one, and the information needed to fix it in one click had been on
+ * screen and was erased.
+ *
+ * Nothing about that is reachable without two receivers and one Mac, which is
+ * why it survived to reach a user.
+ */
+import assert from "node:assert/strict";
+
+const { refusalExplanation, disconnectStatus } = await import("../src/errors.ts");
+
+let checks = 0;
+function check(name, fn) {
+  fn();
+  checks++;
+  console.log(`  ok  ${name}`);
+}
+
+// ------------------------------------------------------------ the regression
+
+check("a busy sender survives the disconnect it triggers", () => {
+  const sticky = refusalExplanation("busy");
+  assert.ok(sticky, "busy must produce an explanation");
+  assert.equal(
+    disconnectStatus(sticky),
+    sticky,
+    "the disconnect that follows a refusal must not overwrite it"
+  );
+});
+
+check("the busy message says what to do, not just what happened", () => {
+  const text = refusalExplanation("busy").toLowerCase();
+  assert.ok(
+    text.includes("close") || text.includes("wait"),
+    `no action offered: ${text}`
+  );
+  // The raw sender text names the mechanism; the user needs the remedy.
+  assert.ok(
+    !text.includes("another receiver is already connected"),
+    "this is the raw wire message, which describes plumbing rather than a fix"
+  );
+});
+
+// ------------------------------------------------------- the ordinary case
+
+check("an ordinary disconnect still says it is reconnecting", () => {
+  assert.equal(disconnectStatus(null), "Disconnected. Reconnecting…");
+});
+
+check("a transient failure is not pinned to the screen", () => {
+  // Anything without a deliberate explanation must return null, so a stale
+  // reason cannot outlive the moment it stopped being true.
+  for (const code of ["", "unknown", "input_unavailable", "internal", "timeout"]) {
+    assert.equal(
+      refusalExplanation(code),
+      null,
+      `${code} must not become sticky`
+    );
+    assert.equal(disconnectStatus(refusalExplanation(code)), "Disconnected. Reconnecting…");
+  }
+});
+
+console.log(`\n${checks} checks passed`);
diff --git a/windows/src/errors.ts b/windows/src/errors.ts
index 8d2f047..4b06338 100644
--- a/windows/src/errors.ts
+++ b/windows/src/errors.ts
@@ -121,3 +121,47 @@ export function backoffFor(attempt: number): number | null {
   if (attempt < 1) return RETRY_BACKOFF_MS[0];
   return attempt <= RETRY_BACKOFF_MS.length ? RETRY_BACKOFF_MS[attempt - 1] : null;
 }
+
+/**
+ * An explanation from the SENDER that has to outlive the disconnect it causes.
+ *
+ * The Mac refuses a second receiver with `busy` and then closes the socket. Both
+ * halves of that are correct — but the close fires `ds://disconnected`, whose
+ * handler wrote "Disconnected. Reconnecting…" straight over the explanation. So
+ * the receiver knew exactly what was wrong, said so, and then erased it about a
+ * hundred milliseconds later.
+ *
+ * What the user is left with is a spinner that never resolves, which reads as a
+ * broken app rather than an occupied one. It cost a real session to diagnose,
+ * and the information needed was on screen the whole time.
+ *
+ * Returns `null` for codes that should not survive a disconnect — a transient
+ * failure must not leave a stale explanation pinned to the screen once it stops
+ * being true.
+ */
+export function refusalExplanation(code: string): string | null {
+  switch (code) {
+    case "busy":
+      // Deliberately not the raw "another receiver is already connected": that
+      // says what happened, not what to do about it, and retrying continues in
+      // the background so the wait is a real option.
+      return (
+        "Another screen is already connected to this Mac. " +
+        "Close it, or wait — this keeps trying."
+      );
+    default:
+      return null;
+  }
+}
+
+/**
+ * What to show when a session ends.
+ *
+ * `sticky` is whatever `refusalExplanation` last produced. Passing it here
+ * rather than checking at the call site is the point: there is now one place
+ * that decides whether a disconnect may overwrite what is on screen, instead of
+ * one flag per reason, added each time somebody notices another one.
+ */
+export function disconnectStatus(sticky: string | null): string {
+  return sticky ?? "Disconnected. Reconnecting…";
+}
diff --git a/windows/src/main.ts b/windows/src/main.ts
index 954c7d5..37560d2 100644
--- a/windows/src/main.ts
+++ b/windows/src/main.ts
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ import {
   type ReceiverPanel,
 } from "./protocol";
 import { InputCapture } from "./input";
-import { backoffFor, humanise } from "./errors";
+import { backoffFor, disconnectStatus, humanise, refusalExplanation } from "./errors";
 import { installDisabledGuard, setEnabled, setVariant } from "./components/controls";
 import { applyWindowClasses } from "./components/window";
 import {
@@ -441,13 +441,14 @@ function measureRefreshRate(): Promise<number> {
   });
 }
 
-/// The Mac took its screen away on purpose, so protected video would play.
+/// An explanation from the Mac that must outlive the disconnect it causes.
 ///
-/// Held across the disconnect that follows: the socket closes a moment later,
-/// and without this the reconnect handler would replace a true explanation with
-/// "Reconnecting…" — which is both wrong and worrying. Nothing is broken, and
-/// nothing will reconnect until someone at the Mac asks for it.
-let releasedBySender = false;
+/// Every reason the sender closes a session arrives as a control message and is
+/// then followed, immediately, by the close itself — so without somewhere to
+/// keep it, the reconnect handler overwrites the one useful thing on screen.
+/// Started as a single flag for "the screen was released"; it needed to be
+/// general the moment a second reason turned up, and `busy` was that reason.
+let stickyStatus: string | null = null;
 
 listen<string>("ds://control", (event) => {
   let message: ControlMessage;
@@ -458,15 +459,15 @@ listen<string>("ds://control", (event) => {
   }
   switch (message.type) {
     case "welcome":
-      releasedBySender = false;
+      // Connected, so nothing from a previous attempt still applies.
+      stickyStatus = null;
       setStatus("", false);
       break;
     case "display_released":
-      releasedBySender = true;
-      setStatus(
+      stickyStatus =
         "The Mac released this screen so protected video can play. " +
-          "Start sharing there to bring it back."
-      );
+        "Start sharing there to bring it back.";
+      setStatus(stickyStatus);
       break;
     case "pointer_release":
       // The Mac says the cursor came home. Drop the lock and resume absolute
@@ -502,7 +503,11 @@ listen<string>("ds://control", (event) => {
       } else if (message.code === "pair_rejected") {
         showPinPrompt(message.message ?? "Incorrect PIN.", true);
       } else {
-        setStatus(`${message.code}: ${message.message}`);
+        // A refusal the sender means to stick: shown now AND kept, because the
+        // close that follows would otherwise wipe it.
+        const explained = refusalExplanation(message.code ?? "");
+        stickyStatus = explained;
+        setStatus(explained ?? `${message.code}: ${message.message}`);
       }
       break;
     default:
@@ -519,7 +524,7 @@ listen<HandoffSample>("ds://handoff", (event) => {
 });
 
 listen("ds://disconnected", () => {
-  if (!releasedBySender) setStatus("Disconnected. Reconnecting…");
+  setStatus(disconnectStatus(stickyStatus));
   // A new session starts a new sampler on the Rust side, and its stamps must
   // not be paired against this session's arrivals.
   handoffMeter.reset();