diff --git a/frontend/src/components/common/MaintenanceTile.vue b/frontend/src/components/common/MaintenanceTile.vue
index fd0c54b..ad63e45 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/common/MaintenanceTile.vue
+++ b/frontend/src/components/common/MaintenanceTile.vue
@@ -7,8 +7,10 @@
 
   Usage: wrap a card's action body in the default slot; pass icon/title/blurb.
   `destructive` tints the icon error-red for delete actions. `open` can be forced
-  (e.g. keep a running task's tile expanded). Keyboard accessible: the header is a
-  real <button> with aria-expanded + focus ring.
+  (e.g. keep a running task's tile expanded). Manual expand/collapse persists per
+  tile in localStorage, so the page reloads the way the operator left it.
+  Keyboard accessible: the header is a real <button> with aria-expanded + focus
+  ring.
 -->
 <template>
   <v-card class="fc-tile" :class="{ 'fc-tile--open': isOpen }">
@@ -53,12 +55,21 @@ const props = defineProps({
   open: { type: Boolean, default: false },
 })
 
-const local = ref(props.open)
-watch(() => props.open, (v) => { local.value = v })
+// Only MANUAL toggles are saved (keyed by tile title): a forced `open` while a
+// task is mid-run is transient state, not a preference — persisting it would
+// resurrect the "several tiles open by default" bug this replaces. When the
+// force clears, the tile falls back to the operator's saved choice.
+const storeKey = `fc.tile.${props.title}`
+function savedOpen() {
+  try { return localStorage.getItem(storeKey) === '1' } catch { return false }
+}
+const local = ref(props.open || savedOpen())
+watch(() => props.open, (v) => { local.value = v || savedOpen() })
 const isOpen = computed(() => local.value)
 
 function toggle() {
   local.value = !local.value
+  try { localStorage.setItem(storeKey, local.value ? '1' : '0') } catch { /* non-fatal */ }
 }
 </script>
 
diff --git a/frontend/src/components/settings/GpuAgentCard.vue b/frontend/src/components/settings/GpuAgentCard.vue
index bbded5e..c577937 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/settings/GpuAgentCard.vue
+++ b/frontend/src/components/settings/GpuAgentCard.vue
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
     icon="mdi-expansion-card"
     title="GPU agent (CCIP + crops)"
     blurb="Connect a desktop-GPU agent to embed characters (CCIP) and crops. It pulls work over HTTP — your database and Redis stay private."
-    :open="true"
   >
     <p class="fc-muted text-body-2 mb-3">
       The agent is a container you run on the machine with the GPU. It
diff --git a/frontend/src/components/settings/HeadsCard.vue b/frontend/src/components/settings/HeadsCard.vue
index a4c5627..b9e684b 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/settings/HeadsCard.vue
+++ b/frontend/src/components/settings/HeadsCard.vue
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
     icon="mdi-brain"
     title="Concept heads (the learning suggester)"
     blurb="Train the per-concept heads that turn your tags into suggestions — they replace Camie and sharpen every time you accept or reject."
-    :open="headCount > 0 || running"
+    :open="running"
   >
     <p class="fc-muted text-body-2 mb-3">
       A <strong>head</strong> is a tiny classifier trained on the SigLIP
diff --git a/frontend/src/components/settings/TagEvalCard.vue b/frontend/src/components/settings/TagEvalCard.vue
index 709ecfa..1e1af56 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/settings/TagEvalCard.vue
+++ b/frontend/src/components/settings/TagEvalCard.vue
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
     icon="mdi-flask-outline"
     title="Tagging eval (heads vs centroid)"
     blurb="Measure whether a trained head beats the old centroid on your own tags — and whether tagging more sharpens it."
-    :open="!!run"
+    :open="running"
   >
     <p class="fc-muted text-body-2 mb-3">
       Reuses the SigLIP embeddings already stored on your images (no re-embed, no