diff --git a/internal/services/media_scanner.go b/internal/services/media_scanner.go
index 39a9fb3..de60791 100644
--- a/internal/services/media_scanner.go
+++ b/internal/services/media_scanner.go
@@ -1007,6 +1007,27 @@ func (s *MediaScanner) extractCalibreSidecar(path string) *MediaMetadata {
 	return metadata
 }
 
+// applyEmbeddedCoverFallback extracts a cover from the media file itself when
+// a metadata sidecar (metadata.opf / metadata.json) supplied the metadata but
+// no sidecar cover (cover.jpg etc.) exists. Without this, a full rescan would
+// clear cover_image_path for sidecar-managed PDFs and EPUBs - mergeMetadata
+// has no PDF/EPUB cover logic of its own.
+func (s *MediaScanner) applyEmbeddedCoverFallback(path string, metadata *MediaMetadata) {
+	if metadata.CoverPath != "" {
+		return
+	}
+	switch strings.ToLower(filepath.Ext(path)) {
+	case ".pdf":
+		if coverPath, err := s.extractPDFCover(path); err == nil && coverPath != "" {
+			metadata.CoverPath = s.getRelativePath(coverPath)
+		}
+	case ".epub", ".kepub":
+		if coverPath, err := s.extractEPUBCover(path); err == nil && coverPath != "" {
+			metadata.CoverPath = s.getRelativePath(coverPath)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 // extractAudiobookshelfSidecar checks for and parses an Audiobookshelf-style
 // metadata.json sidecar next to the media file. Only fields with a matching
 // media_items column are mapped; narrators, subtitle, explicit, abridged and
@@ -1414,6 +1435,7 @@ func (s *MediaScanner) extractMetadata(path string) (*MediaMetadata, error) {
 		if coverPath != "" {
 			calibreMetadata.CoverPath = s.getRelativePath(coverPath)
 		}
+		s.applyEmbeddedCoverFallback(path, calibreMetadata)
 
 		return s.mergeMetadata(path, calibreMetadata)
 	}
@@ -1428,6 +1450,7 @@ func (s *MediaScanner) extractMetadata(path string) (*MediaMetadata, error) {
 		if coverPath != "" {
 			abMetadata.CoverPath = s.getRelativePath(coverPath)
 		}
+		s.applyEmbeddedCoverFallback(path, abMetadata)
 
 		return s.mergeMetadata(path, abMetadata)
 	}
diff --git a/internal/services/media_scanner_metadata_test.go b/internal/services/media_scanner_metadata_test.go
index c044538..b045162 100644
--- a/internal/services/media_scanner_metadata_test.go
+++ b/internal/services/media_scanner_metadata_test.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package services
 import (
 	"archive/zip"
 	"bytes"
+	"fmt"
 	"image"
 	"image/jpeg"
 	"os"
@@ -230,3 +231,74 @@ func TestExtractAudiobookshelfSidecar(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	})
 }
+
+// createTestPDFWithImage builds a minimal one-page PDF embedding a JPEG
+// XObject, so pdfcpu-based cover extraction has an image to find.
+func createTestPDFWithImage() []byte {
+	jpegData := []byte(createTestJPEGBytes())
+	content := "q 100 0 0 100 0 0 cm /Im0 Do Q"
+
+	var buf bytes.Buffer
+	offsets := []int{0} // object numbers are 1-based
+	buf.WriteString("%PDF-1.4\n")
+
+	writeObj := func(n int, body func(w *bytes.Buffer)) {
+		offsets = append(offsets, buf.Len())
+		fmt.Fprintf(&buf, "%d 0 obj\n", n)
+		body(&buf)
+		buf.WriteString("endobj\n")
+	}
+
+	writeObj(1, func(w *bytes.Buffer) { w.WriteString("<< /Type /Catalog /Pages 2 0 R >>\n") })
+	writeObj(2, func(w *bytes.Buffer) { w.WriteString("<< /Type /Pages /Kids [3 0 R] /Count 1 >>\n") })
+	writeObj(3, func(w *bytes.Buffer) {
+		w.WriteString("<< /Type /Page /Parent 2 0 R /MediaBox [0 0 100 100] /Resources << /XObject << /Im0 4 0 R >> >> /Contents 5 0 R >>\n")
+	})
+	writeObj(4, func(w *bytes.Buffer) {
+		fmt.Fprintf(w, "<< /Type /XObject /Subtype /Image /Width 1 /Height 1 /ColorSpace /DeviceRGB /BitsPerComponent 8 /Filter /DCTDecode /Length %d >>\nstream\n", len(jpegData))
+		w.Write(jpegData)
+		w.WriteString("\nendstream\n")
+	})
+	writeObj(5, func(w *bytes.Buffer) {
+		fmt.Fprintf(w, "<< /Length %d >>\nstream\n%s\nendstream\n", len(content), content)
+	})
+
+	xrefStart := buf.Len()
+	fmt.Fprintf(&buf, "xref\n0 %d\n0000000000 65535 f \n", len(offsets))
+	for _, off := range offsets[1:] {
+		fmt.Fprintf(&buf, "%010d 00000 n \n", off)
+	}
+	fmt.Fprintf(&buf, "trailer\n<< /Size %d /Root 1 0 R >>\nstartxref\n%d\n%%%%EOF\n", len(offsets), xrefStart)
+	return buf.Bytes()
+}
+
+// TestSidecarCoverFallback guards the regression where a metadata.json
+// sidecar (no cover.jpg next to the book) made extractMetadata return an
+// empty CoverPath for PDFs - mergeMetadata has no PDF/EPUB cover logic, so a
+// full rescan wiped cover_image_path for sidecar-managed books.
+func TestSidecarCoverFallback(t *testing.T) {
+	dir := t.TempDir()
+	pdfPath := filepath.Join(dir, "book.pdf")
+	if err := os.WriteFile(pdfPath, createTestPDFWithImage(), 0644); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(dir, "metadata.json"), []byte(`{"title":"Sidecar Book","authors":["A"]}`), 0644); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	s := NewMediaScanner(nil)
+	s.folders = []string{dir} // SetFolders requires a live DB; tests only need path relativization
+	metadata, err := s.extractMetadata(pdfPath)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("extractMetadata() error: %v", err)
+	}
+	if metadata.Title != "Sidecar Book" {
+		t.Errorf("Title = %q, want sidecar title", metadata.Title)
+	}
+	if metadata.CoverPath == "" {
+		t.Fatal("CoverPath empty - sidecar branch skipped embedded cover extraction")
+	}
+	if _, err := os.Stat(filepath.Join(dir, metadata.CoverPath)); err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("extracted cover not on disk: %v", err)
+	}
+}