diff --git a/src/library_maintenance.rs b/src/library_maintenance.rs
index ffa87bb..a4f44b9 100644
--- a/src/library_maintenance.rs
+++ b/src/library_maintenance.rs
@@ -156,6 +156,25 @@ pub fn detect_missing_files_for_library(
     (deleted, next_offset)
 }
 
+/// Re-gather query-planner statistics (`sqlite_stat1`).
+///
+/// The migrations run `ANALYZE` once, but the stats never refresh after
+/// that. A snapshot taken while `image_exif.content_hash` was all-NULL
+/// told the planner every hash matches every row, so the correlated
+/// `content_hash = ...` subqueries in [`refresh_back_refs`] scanned
+/// the index instead of seeking it: ~20s per tick holding the write
+/// lock, starving chat persistence past `busy_timeout`. With fresh
+/// stats the same pass takes ~0.1s. `PRAGMA optimize` doesn't catch
+/// this on SQLite 3.45 (verified), hence a plain `ANALYZE`. It costs
+/// well under a second at current scale, so run it on full-scan ticks.
+pub fn refresh_planner_stats(conn: &mut SqliteConnection) {
+    let started = std::time::Instant::now();
+    match sql_query("ANALYZE").execute(conn) {
+        Ok(_) => debug!("ANALYZE completed in {:?}", started.elapsed()),
+        Err(e) => warn!("ANALYZE failed: {:?}", e),
+    }
+}
+
 /// Refresh the `(library_id, rel_path)` back-refs on hash-keyed
 /// tables. A back-ref is stale when:
 ///   - its `content_hash` is non-null,
diff --git a/src/utils.rs b/src/utils.rs
index 4e8ba3f..6439d2a 100644
--- a/src/utils.rs
+++ b/src/utils.rs
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ where
         Err(e) => e,
     };
     for attempt in 1..=max_retries {
-        let base = Duration::from_millis(100).saturating_mul(1_u32.pow(attempt - 1));
+        let base = Duration::from_millis(100).saturating_mul(2_u32.pow(attempt - 1));
         let jitter_range = base.as_millis() as f64 * 0.25;
         let jitter = rand::thread_rng().gen_range(-jitter_range..=jitter_range) as u128;
         let delay = base.as_millis() as i128 + jitter as i128;
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ where
             );
             break;
         }
-        let base = Duration::from_millis(100).saturating_mul(1_u32.pow(attempt - 1));
+        let base = Duration::from_millis(100).saturating_mul(2_u32.pow(attempt - 1));
         let jitter_range = base.as_millis() as f64 * 0.25;
         let jitter = rand::thread_rng().gen_range(-jitter_range..=jitter_range) as u128;
         let delay = base.as_millis() as i128 + jitter as i128;
diff --git a/src/watcher.rs b/src/watcher.rs
index 39127ca..6d2a727 100644
--- a/src/watcher.rs
+++ b/src/watcher.rs
@@ -577,6 +577,9 @@ pub fn watch_files(
             // model" for the rules.
             {
                 let mut conn = image_api::database::connect();
+                if is_full_scan {
+                    library_maintenance::refresh_planner_stats(&mut conn);
+                }
                 let _ = image_api::database::reconcile::run(&mut conn);
 
                 // Back-ref refresh: hash-keyed rows whose