diff --git a/src/api/catalogue.ts b/src/api/catalogue.ts
index 11bd0a2..b750c64 100644
--- a/src/api/catalogue.ts
+++ b/src/api/catalogue.ts
@@ -101,7 +101,37 @@ export const catalogueApi = {
     api.list<CatalogueRef>(`${WEB}/products/getimportedcatalogueproducts`, { tenantid }),
 };
 
-/** Key for the imported-refs lookup. Both halves, always. */
+/**
+ * Key for the imported-refs lookup.
+ *
+ * `image_id` when there is one, and the brand-qualified id only as a fallback.
+ * The order matters: the catalogue is rebuilt by scrape and renumbered every
+ * time, so a tick placed by `catalogueid` lands on whatever product now holds
+ * that number — or, far more often, on nothing. Eleven of the nineteen links on
+ * the platform were in that state on 2026-08-31, which showed rows a shop
+ * really held as NOT imported and invited someone to import them again.
+ *
+ * `image_id` is the key the catalogue itself deduplicates on and survives both
+ * a renumber and a rename.
+ */
 export function catalogueKey(ref: CatalogueRef | CatalogueProduct): string {
+  const imageId = 'catalogueid' in ref ? ref.imageid : ref.image_id;
+  if (imageId) return `img:${imageId}`;
   return 'catalogueid' in ref ? `${ref.brand}:${ref.catalogueid}` : `${ref.brand}:${ref.id}`;
 }
+
+/**
+ * Every key one imported ref can be recognised by.
+ *
+ * A ref carries both halves during the changeover — the stable key it has just
+ * acquired, and the id it was imported under years of scrapes ago. Emitting
+ * both means a browse screen keeps matching products that have not been
+ * relinked yet, instead of showing a shop's own stock as missing until someone
+ * runs the repair.
+ */
+export function catalogueKeysOf(ref: CatalogueRef): string[] {
+  const keys: string[] = [];
+  if (ref.imageid) keys.push(`img:${ref.imageid}`);
+  if (ref.catalogueid) keys.push(`${ref.brand}:${ref.catalogueid}`);
+  return keys;
+}
diff --git a/src/api/catalogueKey.test.ts b/src/api/catalogueKey.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ba1e2c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/api/catalogueKey.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+/**
+ * Which key a catalogue product is recognised by.
+ *
+ * This decides whether the browse screen shows a product as already imported.
+ * Getting it wrong is not cosmetic: a shop's own stock shown as missing gets
+ * imported a second time, and the shop ends up with duplicates.
+ *
+ * The reason it changed: `catalogueid` is renumbered by every re-scrape.
+ * Pepsico's live ids run 3, 6, 9 … 27, 30 — there is no 19, 25 or 26 — so on
+ * 2026-08-31 eleven of the nineteen links on the platform pointed at rows that
+ * no longer existed. `image_id` is the key the catalogue itself deduplicates on
+ * and survives both a renumber and a rename.
+ */
+import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
+import { test } from 'node:test';
+import { catalogueKey, catalogueKeysOf } from './catalogue';
+
+test('a product with a stable key is identified by it, not by its id', () => {
+  assert.equal(
+    catalogueKey({ brand: 'pepsico', id: 27, image_id: 'cheetos_chips_2d6bf74f' } as never),
+    'img:cheetos_chips_2d6bf74f',
+  );
+  assert.equal(
+    catalogueKey({ brand: 'pepsico', catalogueid: 27, imageid: 'cheetos_chips_2d6bf74f' } as never),
+    'img:cheetos_chips_2d6bf74f',
+  );
+});
+
+/*
+The two sides have to agree. A ref from Fiesta and a product from the catalogue
+describe the same thing under different field names — `imageid` and `image_id` —
+and if they produced different keys the tick would never appear at all.
+*/
+test('a ref and a catalogue row agree on the key', () => {
+  const fromFiesta = catalogueKey({
+    brand: 'pepsico',
+    catalogueid: 27,
+    imageid: 'cheetos_chips_2d6bf74f',
+  } as never);
+  const fromCatalogue = catalogueKey({
+    brand: 'pepsico',
+    id: 27,
+    image_id: 'cheetos_chips_2d6bf74f',
+  } as never);
+  assert.equal(fromFiesta, fromCatalogue);
+});
+
+// The fallback still has to work: products imported before the column existed
+// carry only the id, and they are genuinely imported.
+test('without a stable key the brand-qualified id is used', () => {
+  assert.equal(catalogueKey({ brand: 'dabur', catalogueid: 19 } as never), 'dabur:19');
+  assert.equal(catalogueKey({ brand: 'dabur', id: 19 } as never), 'dabur:19');
+});
+
+// Brand-qualified, never bare. Each brand is its own table with its own
+// sequence, so dabur 19 and pepsico 19 both exist and a bare id would tick the
+// wrong product.
+test('the fallback key keeps the brand, because ids repeat across brands', () => {
+  assert.notEqual(
+    catalogueKey({ brand: 'dabur', catalogueid: 19 } as never),
+    catalogueKey({ brand: 'pepsico', catalogueid: 19 } as never),
+  );
+});
+
+/*
+During the changeover a ref carries both. Emitting only the stable key would
+make every not-yet-relinked product read as missing the moment this shipped —
+turning a silent problem into a visible one on every shop at once.
+*/
+test('a ref is recognised by both keys while the changeover runs', () => {
+  assert.deepEqual(
+    catalogueKeysOf({ brand: 'pepsico', catalogueid: 27, imageid: 'cheetos_chips_2d6bf74f' }),
+    ['img:cheetos_chips_2d6bf74f', 'pepsico:27'],
+  );
+});
+
+test('a ref with only an id still yields its one key', () => {
+  assert.deepEqual(catalogueKeysOf({ brand: 'dabur', catalogueid: 19 }), ['dabur:19']);
+});
+
+// A ref with neither yields nothing rather than a key like "undefined:0" that
+// would collide with every other broken ref and tick unrelated products.
+test('a ref with nothing to match on yields no keys at all', () => {
+  assert.deepEqual(catalogueKeysOf({ brand: 'dabur', catalogueid: 0 }), []);
+});
diff --git a/src/api/types.ts b/src/api/types.ts
index c77822a..d826fca 100644
--- a/src/api/types.ts
+++ b/src/api/types.ts
@@ -170,6 +170,14 @@ export interface CatalogueBrand {
 export interface CatalogueRef {
   brand: string;
   catalogueid: number;
+  /**
+   * The catalogue's own stable key, when the product carries one.
+   *
+   * Preferred over `catalogueid` for matching: the id is renumbered by every
+   * re-scrape. Empty for a product imported before the column existed, and
+   * filled in by a re-import or by `products/relinkcatalogue`.
+   */
+  imageid?: string;
 }
 
 /* ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
diff --git a/src/features/catalogue/CatalogueBrowser.tsx b/src/features/catalogue/CatalogueBrowser.tsx
index d685fb3..bc07117 100644
--- a/src/features/catalogue/CatalogueBrowser.tsx
+++ b/src/features/catalogue/CatalogueBrowser.tsx
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import { TextInput } from '@astryxdesign/core/TextInput';
 import { Token } from '@astryxdesign/core/Token';
 import { VStack } from '@astryxdesign/core/VStack';
 import { Funnel, PackageSearch, Search, SearchX } from 'lucide-react';
-import { catalogueKey } from '@/api/catalogue';
+import { catalogueKey, catalogueKeysOf } from '@/api/catalogue';
 import { productsApi } from '@/api/products';
 import type { CatalogueProduct, ImportCatalogueProductRequest } from '@/api/types';
 import { queryKeys } from '@/queries/keys';
@@ -188,7 +188,10 @@ export function CatalogueBrowser({
   const knownTotal = !category && !debounced ? brandTotal : undefined;
 
   const importedKeys = useMemo(() => {
-    const set = new Set((imported.data ?? []).map(catalogueKey));
+    // Both keys per ref, not one. During the changeover a ref can carry the
+    // stable key it has just acquired AND the id it was imported under, and a
+    // product that has not been relinked yet is still genuinely imported.
+    const set = new Set((imported.data ?? []).flatMap(catalogueKeysOf));
     for (const key of justImported) set.add(key);
     return set;
   }, [imported.data, justImported]);
diff --git a/src/features/nearle-admin/import/shelve.ts b/src/features/nearle-admin/import/shelve.ts
index a46e585..d1ce2fa 100644
--- a/src/features/nearle-admin/import/shelve.ts
+++ b/src/features/nearle-admin/import/shelve.ts
@@ -34,6 +34,13 @@ export interface ShelveResult {
   skipped: number;
   /** Kept so the caller can say which ones, and why. */
   plan: StockPlan;
+  /**
+   * Brands the catalogue could not be read for, if any.
+   *
+   * Named rather than counted, because the answer is always "ask about this
+   * brand" and a number does not say which.
+   */
+  failedBrands: string[];
 }
 
 /**
@@ -57,11 +64,23 @@ export async function shelveBatch(
 
   // One catalogue read per BRAND rather than per product. A 500-row sheet would
   // otherwise open 500 requests from a shop's connection.
+  //
+  // A brand that cannot be read does NOT fail the batch. It used to: a sheet of
+  // twenty products naming one brand the catalogue could not resolve threw on
+  // the first lookup and shelved nothing, so nineteen products the shop was
+  // entitled to sell stayed unpriced because of the twentieth. Its products now
+  // fall through to `unresolved`, which is already reported product by product,
+  // and the brand is named so the cause is not left to guesswork.
   const brands = [...new Set(plan.matched.map((entry) => entry.product.brand))];
   const catalogueIds = new Map<string, number>();
+  const failedBrands: string[] = [];
   for (const brand of brands) {
-    for (const [imageId, id] of await catalogueApi.idsByImageId(brand)) {
-      catalogueIds.set(imageId, id);
+    try {
+      for (const [imageId, id] of await catalogueApi.idsByImageId(brand)) {
+        catalogueIds.set(imageId, id);
+      }
+    } catch {
+      failedBrands.push(brand);
     }
   }
 
@@ -77,5 +96,10 @@ export async function shelveBatch(
   // the stock ledger entry together.
   if (requests.length > 0) await productsApi.importFromCatalogue(requests);
 
-  return { shelved: requests.length, skipped: unresolved.length + unpriced.length, plan };
+  return {
+    shelved: requests.length,
+    skipped: unresolved.length + unpriced.length,
+    plan,
+    failedBrands,
+  };
 }
diff --git a/src/features/uploads/UploadsPanel.tsx b/src/features/uploads/UploadsPanel.tsx
index 8e4c9e5..4e326ff 100644
--- a/src/features/uploads/UploadsPanel.tsx
+++ b/src/features/uploads/UploadsPanel.tsx
@@ -417,9 +417,17 @@ function ShelveAction({
         skipped: result.skipped,
       });
       setNote(
-        result.skipped > 0
-          ? `${result.shelved} on the shelf. ${result.skipped} were left out — the sheet did not price them.`
-          : `${result.shelved} priced, shelved and stocked.`,
+        [
+          `${result.shelved} priced, shelved and stocked.`,
+          result.skipped > 0 ? `${result.skipped} were left out.` : "",
+          // Named, because "left out" alone sends someone looking at their
+          // spreadsheet for a problem that is in the catalogue.
+          result.failedBrands.length > 0
+            ? `The catalogue could not be read for: ${result.failedBrands.join(", ")}.`
+            : "",
+        ]
+          .filter(Boolean)
+          .join(" "),
       );
       onDone();
     } catch (cause) {