diff --git a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/hooks/useFileViewerPanels/useFileViewerPanels.tsx b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/hooks/useFileViewerPanels/useFileViewerPanels.tsx
index 883f1e57..0eddb4f0 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/hooks/useFileViewerPanels/useFileViewerPanels.tsx
+++ b/src/workspaces/officerdev/src/hooks/useFileViewerPanels/useFileViewerPanels.tsx
@@ -51,7 +51,27 @@ export const useFileViewerPanels = (): EphemeralPanels | null => {
         ? viewerWithEphemeralLayout
         : singleViewerLayout;
 
-  const onCloseViewer = useCallback(() => setSearchParams({}), [setSearchParams]);
+  /**
+   * Close the viewer and everything stacked on it — and NOTHING else.
+   *
+   * This was `setSearchParams({})`, which wiped the whole query string. That took `path` with it, so
+   * closing a file you had opened inside a folder dropped you back at home: open ~/Tests, view a file,
+   * close it, and the browser is at ~. It also discarded whatever `useGlobalQueryString` had put there.
+   *
+   * The intent was already written down in `useFileBrowserApp.setViewerParams` — "`path` is not one of
+   * them, it is where you are, not what is on top of it, so it survives" — but only the OPEN path
+   * honoured it. Deleting the ephemeral keys by name is the same rule applied to close, and it is what
+   * `onCloseEphemeral` directly below has always done.
+   */
+  const onCloseViewer = useCallback(
+    () =>
+      setSearchParams((prev) => {
+        const next = new URLSearchParams(prev);
+        EPHEMERAL_KEYS.forEach((k) => next.delete(k));
+        return next;
+      }),
+    [setSearchParams],
+  );
 
   const onCloseEphemeral = useCallback(
     () =>