diff --git a/src/vpn/VpnScreen.tsx b/src/vpn/VpnScreen.tsx
index b1e8a00..f79bde2 100644
--- a/src/vpn/VpnScreen.tsx
+++ b/src/vpn/VpnScreen.tsx
@@ -1551,7 +1551,22 @@ export const VpnScreen = ({ embedded, onShowCredits, wordmark, wordmarkLight }:
           Headscale form, and showing a second copy here would put two on the screen at once. */}
       {/* `vm.showManual` forces it open even mid sign-in: for a Headscale node in needsLogin the form
           is the ONLY way forward, so hiding it there strands the user. */}
-      {showManual && !vm.needsSetup && (!vm.signingIn || vm.showManual) && vm.authorized !== false ? (
+      {/*
+        `vm.profiles.length === 0` is the third way in, and it exists because of a state the other two
+        could not describe: a sign-in that got as far as NeedsLogin and no further.
+
+        `signingIn` is then true, so the form is suppressed as "already in progress" — but there is no
+        profile, nothing is connected, and nothing will ever complete. The screen showed "Waiting for
+        sign-in" above a toggle bound to `connected` (so it could not move) with no form, no chooser
+        and no reset. The only exit was deleting the app.
+
+        A node in NeedsLogin with no profile is not signing in. It is stuck, and the way out of stuck
+        is the form that asks where to connect.
+      */}
+      {showManual &&
+      !vm.needsSetup &&
+      (!vm.signingIn || vm.showManual || vm.profiles.length === 0) &&
+      vm.authorized !== false ? (
         <ManualLogin vm={vm} />
       ) : null}