diff --git a/flutter_client/lib/player/album_cover_cache.dart b/flutter_client/lib/player/album_cover_cache.dart
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4ddd1270
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flutter_client/lib/player/album_cover_cache.dart
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+import 'dart:async';
+import 'dart:io';
+
+import 'package:dio/dio.dart';
+import 'package:flutter/foundation.dart';
+import 'package:path_provider/path_provider.dart';
+
+/// Caches album cover bytes to disk so MediaItem.artUri can point at a
+/// file:// URI. Android's MediaSession framework fetches artUri itself
+/// and doesn't carry our Bearer header, so we pre-fetch via the
+/// authenticated dio and hand the system a local file path instead.
+///
+/// Cache layout: <applicationCacheDirectory>/album_covers/<albumId>.jpg.
+/// No explicit eviction — covers are tiny and OS clears app cache when
+/// space is tight.
+class AlbumCoverCache {
+  AlbumCoverCache({
+    required Future<Dio> Function() dioFactory,
+    Future<Directory> Function()? cacheDirFactory,
+  })  : _dioFactory = dioFactory,
+        _cacheDirFactory = cacheDirFactory ?? getApplicationCacheDirectory;
+
+  final Future<Dio> Function() _dioFactory;
+  final Future<Directory> Function() _cacheDirFactory;
+
+  /// In-flight requests keyed by albumId so concurrent callers for the
+  /// same album dedupe to one fetch.
+  final Map<String, Future<String?>> _inflight = {};
+
+  /// Returns local file path to the album cover, or null on any
+  /// failure (network, 4xx/5xx, disk full, empty albumId).
+  Future<String?> getOrFetch(String albumId) {
+    if (albumId.isEmpty) return Future.value(null);
+    final existing = _inflight[albumId];
+    if (existing != null) return existing;
+    final fut = _doFetch(albumId);
+    _inflight[albumId] = fut;
+    fut.whenComplete(() => _inflight.remove(albumId));
+    return fut;
+  }
+
+  Future<String?> _doFetch(String albumId) async {
+    try {
+      final dir = await _cacheDirFactory();
+      final coversDir = Directory('${dir.path}/album_covers');
+      await coversDir.create(recursive: true);
+      final filePath = '${coversDir.path}/$albumId.jpg';
+      final file = File(filePath);
+      if (await file.exists()) return filePath;
+
+      final dio = await _dioFactory();
+      final r = await dio.get<List<int>>(
+        '/api/albums/$albumId/cover',
+        options: Options(responseType: ResponseType.bytes),
+      );
+      final bytes = r.data;
+      if (bytes == null || bytes.isEmpty) return null;
+      await file.writeAsBytes(bytes, flush: true);
+      return filePath;
+    } catch (e) {
+      debugPrint('AlbumCoverCache: fetch failed for $albumId: $e');
+      return null;
+    }
+  }
+}
diff --git a/flutter_client/test/player/album_cover_cache_test.dart b/flutter_client/test/player/album_cover_cache_test.dart
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..79940f89
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flutter_client/test/player/album_cover_cache_test.dart
@@ -0,0 +1,121 @@
+import 'dart:io';
+import 'dart:typed_data';
+
+import 'package:dio/dio.dart';
+import 'package:flutter_test/flutter_test.dart';
+
+import 'package:minstrel/player/album_cover_cache.dart';
+
+class _RecordingAdapter implements HttpClientAdapter {
+  _RecordingAdapter(this.body);
+  final List<int> body;
+  int callCount = 0;
+
+  @override
+  Future<ResponseBody> fetch(
+    RequestOptions options,
+    Stream<Uint8List>? requestStream,
+    Future<void>? cancelFuture,
+  ) async {
+    callCount++;
+    return ResponseBody.fromBytes(body, 200, headers: {
+      Headers.contentTypeHeader: ['image/jpeg'],
+    });
+  }
+
+  @override
+  void close({bool force = false}) {}
+}
+
+class _FailingAdapter implements HttpClientAdapter {
+  @override
+  Future<ResponseBody> fetch(
+    RequestOptions options,
+    Stream<Uint8List>? requestStream,
+    Future<void>? cancelFuture,
+  ) async {
+    throw DioException(
+      requestOptions: options,
+      type: DioExceptionType.connectionError,
+      message: 'simulated network failure',
+    );
+  }
+
+  @override
+  void close({bool force = false}) {}
+}
+
+Future<Directory> _tmpDirFactory() async =>
+    Directory.systemTemp.createTempSync('cover_cache_test_');
+
+void main() {
+  test('cache miss writes file and returns path', () async {
+    final adapter = _RecordingAdapter([1, 2, 3, 4]);
+    final dio = Dio(BaseOptions(baseUrl: 'http://test'))..httpClientAdapter = adapter;
+    final cache = AlbumCoverCache(
+      dioFactory: () async => dio,
+      cacheDirFactory: _tmpDirFactory,
+    );
+    final path = await cache.getOrFetch('alb-1');
+    expect(path, isNotNull);
+    expect(File(path!).readAsBytesSync(), [1, 2, 3, 4]);
+    expect(adapter.callCount, 1);
+  });
+
+  test('cache hit returns same path without re-fetching', () async {
+    final adapter = _RecordingAdapter([9, 9, 9]);
+    final dio = Dio(BaseOptions(baseUrl: 'http://test'))..httpClientAdapter = adapter;
+    final tmp = await _tmpDirFactory();
+    final cache = AlbumCoverCache(
+      dioFactory: () async => dio,
+      cacheDirFactory: () async => tmp,
+    );
+    final p1 = await cache.getOrFetch('alb-2');
+    final p2 = await cache.getOrFetch('alb-2');
+    expect(p1, p2);
+    expect(adapter.callCount, 1);
+  });
+
+  test('concurrent calls for same albumId dedupe', () async {
+    final adapter = _RecordingAdapter([1, 2, 3]);
+    final dio = Dio(BaseOptions(baseUrl: 'http://test'))..httpClientAdapter = adapter;
+    final cache = AlbumCoverCache(
+      dioFactory: () async => dio,
+      cacheDirFactory: _tmpDirFactory,
+    );
+    final results = await Future.wait([
+      cache.getOrFetch('alb-3'),
+      cache.getOrFetch('alb-3'),
+      cache.getOrFetch('alb-3'),
+    ]);
+    expect(results[0], isNotNull);
+    expect(results[1], results[0]);
+    expect(results[2], results[0]);
+    expect(adapter.callCount, 1);
+  });
+
+  test('failure returns null without writing file', () async {
+    final adapter = _FailingAdapter();
+    final dio = Dio(BaseOptions(baseUrl: 'http://test'))..httpClientAdapter = adapter;
+    final tmp = await _tmpDirFactory();
+    final cache = AlbumCoverCache(
+      dioFactory: () async => dio,
+      cacheDirFactory: () async => tmp,
+    );
+    final path = await cache.getOrFetch('alb-4');
+    expect(path, isNull);
+    expect(File('${tmp.path}/album_covers/alb-4.jpg').existsSync(), isFalse);
+  });
+
+  test('empty albumId returns null without dio call', () async {
+    final adapter = _RecordingAdapter([1, 2]);
+    final dio = Dio(BaseOptions(baseUrl: 'http://test'))..httpClientAdapter = adapter;
+    final cache = AlbumCoverCache(
+      dioFactory: () async => dio,
+      cacheDirFactory: _tmpDirFactory,
+    );
+    final path = await cache.getOrFetch('');
+    expect(path, isNull);
+    expect(adapter.callCount, 0);
+  });
+}