diff --git a/api/derive.ts b/api/derive.ts
index 776b4b0..53e4864 100644
--- a/api/derive.ts
+++ b/api/derive.ts
@@ -658,17 +658,18 @@ async function buildVideo(
     order rather than the other one.
   */
   const placeholder = await encodePlaceholder(stillJpg, join(staging, 'placeholder.webp'), email);
-  await rm(stillJpg, { force: true });
   variants.push({ file: 'poster.webp', width: width || null, height: height || null, bytes: poster.bytes });
 
   /*
     The poster's own ladder, cut from the same still.
 
     From `stillJpg` rather than from `poster.webp`, so each rung is scaled once from the original frame
-    instead of being a re-encode of an encode. The still is a JPEG at the video's full size and it is
-    about to be deleted anyway.
+    instead of being a re-encode of an encode.
 
-    Rungs narrower than the source only: one at or above it would be `poster.webp` under another name.
+    EVERYTHING that reads the still happens above the line that removes it, and that ordering is the
+    only thing holding this together — the placeholder, then poster.webp, then these. This loop was
+    added below the removal on 2026-08-30 and every video failed to convert until it moved. The comment
+    warning about exactly this was already three lines up.
   */
   for (const rung of POSTER_LADDER) {
     if (!width || rung >= width) continue;
@@ -686,6 +687,10 @@ async function buildVideo(
     });
   }
 
+  // Last, once nothing else needs it. It is an intermediate: a JPEG in a directory where everything
+  // served is WebP, and leaving it would publish a rendition nothing references.
+  await rm(stillJpg, { force: true });
+
   return {
     kind: 'video',
     source: { name, bytes: source.bytes, mtimeMs: source.mtimeMs, width: width || null, height: height || null },