diff --git a/backend/src/routes/videos.ts b/backend/src/routes/videos.ts
index b8e5d51..c6507ef 100644
--- a/backend/src/routes/videos.ts
+++ b/backend/src/routes/videos.ts
@@ -382,8 +382,23 @@ export const videoRoutes = new Elysia({ prefix: "/api/videos" })
                 });
             }
         } catch (err: any) {
-            console.error("Stream error:", err);
-            return status(404, { error: "Video not found" });
+            const msg = err?.message || String(err);
+            console.error(
+                "Stream error for video",
+                id,
+                "key",
+                video.transcodedKey ?? video.videoKey,
+                ":",
+                msg,
+            );
+            // S3 errors are server errors, not "not found"
+            const statusCode = msg.includes("NoSuchKey") ? 404 : 502;
+            return status(statusCode, {
+                error:
+                    statusCode === 404
+                        ? "Video not found"
+                        : "Failed to stream video",
+            });
         }
     })
 
diff --git a/backend/src/services/rustfs.ts b/backend/src/services/rustfs.ts
index 1f54aec..4854d36 100644
--- a/backend/src/services/rustfs.ts
+++ b/backend/src/services/rustfs.ts
@@ -175,7 +175,25 @@ export async function getVideoStream(
         ...(rangeHeader ? { Range: rangeHeader } : {}),
     });
 
-    const result = await s3.send(command);
+    // Retry once on transient failures (cold S3 connections can fail the first request)
+    let result;
+    try {
+        result = await s3.send(command);
+    } catch (firstError: any) {
+        console.warn(
+            `[stream] First attempt failed for key=${key}:`,
+            firstError?.message || firstError,
+        );
+        try {
+            result = await s3.send(command);
+        } catch (secondError: any) {
+            console.error(
+                `[stream] Second attempt also failed for key=${key}:`,
+                secondError?.message || secondError,
+            );
+            throw secondError;
+        }
+    }
     if (!result.Body) {
         throw new Error("Empty response body from RustFS");
     }