diff --git a/lib/services/playback_progress_tracker.dart b/lib/services/playback_progress_tracker.dart
index 1a8cb128..1c9bbc0e 100644
--- a/lib/services/playback_progress_tracker.dart
+++ b/lib/services/playback_progress_tracker.dart
@@ -37,6 +37,12 @@ class PlaybackProgressTracker {
   /// Update interval (default: 10 seconds)
   final Duration updateInterval;
 
+  /// Counts consecutive online progress failures for backoff logic.
+  int _consecutiveFailures = 0;
+
+  /// Timer ticks to skip before retrying after failures (exponential backoff).
+  int _ticksToSkip = 0;
+
   PlaybackProgressTracker({
     required this.client,
     required this.metadata,
@@ -64,6 +70,12 @@ class PlaybackProgressTracker {
 
     _progressTimer = Timer.periodic(updateInterval, (timer) {
       if (player.state.playing) {
+        // Skip ticks when backing off after consecutive failures to avoid
+        // flooding the network with doomed requests during an outage.
+        if (_ticksToSkip > 0) {
+          _ticksToSkip--;
+          return;
+        }
         _sendProgress('playing');
       }
     });
@@ -103,6 +115,12 @@ class PlaybackProgressTracker {
       } else {
         // Send progress to server immediately
         await _sendOnlineProgress(state, position, duration);
+        // Success — reset backoff state
+        if (_consecutiveFailures > 0) {
+          appLogger.d('Progress update succeeded after $_consecutiveFailures consecutive failure(s), resetting backoff');
+          _consecutiveFailures = 0;
+          _ticksToSkip = 0;
+        }
       }
 
       // Emit watch state event on stop for UI updates across screens
@@ -114,7 +132,18 @@ class PlaybackProgressTracker {
         );
       }
     } catch (e) {
-      appLogger.d('Failed to send progress update (non-critical)', error: e);
+      if (!isOffline) {
+        _consecutiveFailures++;
+        // Exponential backoff: skip 1, 2, 4, 8... ticks (capped at 6 ≈ 60s)
+        _ticksToSkip = (1 << (_consecutiveFailures - 1)).clamp(1, 6);
+        appLogger.d(
+          'Progress update failed ($_consecutiveFailures consecutive), '
+          'skipping next $_ticksToSkip tick(s)',
+          error: e,
+        );
+      } else {
+        appLogger.d('Failed to send progress update (non-critical)', error: e);
+      }
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/lib/services/plex_auth_service.dart b/lib/services/plex_auth_service.dart
index fc069396..2700920f 100644
--- a/lib/services/plex_auth_service.dart
+++ b/lib/services/plex_auth_service.dart
@@ -563,6 +563,12 @@ class PlexServer {
     }
 
     for (final connection in connections) {
+      // Skip endpoints that are never reachable from an external client:
+      // Docker bridge addresses and IPv6 link-local / all-zeros addresses.
+      if (_isUnreachableAddress(connection.address)) {
+        continue;
+      }
+
       // First, try the actual connection URI (may be HTTPS plex.direct)
       final isPlexDirect = connection.uri.contains('.plex.direct');
       final isHttps = connection.protocol == 'https';
@@ -738,6 +744,32 @@ class PlexServer {
 
     return entries.first.key;
   }
+
+  /// Returns true if the address is known to be unreachable from external
+  /// clients (Docker bridge networks, IPv6 link-local, or all-zeros).
+  static bool _isUnreachableAddress(String address) {
+    // Docker bridge subnets (172.17.0.0/16, 172.18.0.0/16, etc.)
+    // Docker uses 172.17-31.x.x by default.
+    final dockerPattern = RegExp(r'^172\.(1[7-9]|2[0-9]|3[01])\.');
+    if (dockerPattern.hasMatch(address)) {
+      return true;
+    }
+
+    // IPv6 all-zeros (::) or link-local (fe80::)
+    final normalized = address.replaceAll('-', ':').toLowerCase();
+    if (normalized == '::' || normalized == '0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000') {
+      return true;
+    }
+    // Condensed all-zeros variants
+    if (RegExp(r'^(0+:){7}0+$').hasMatch(normalized)) {
+      return true;
+    }
+    if (normalized.startsWith('fe80:') || normalized.startsWith('fe80::')) {
+      return true;
+    }
+
+    return false;
+  }
 }
 
 /// Represents a connection to a Plex server
diff --git a/lib/utils/endpoint_failover_interceptor.dart b/lib/utils/endpoint_failover_interceptor.dart
index c0353af2..7069d1e2 100644
--- a/lib/utils/endpoint_failover_interceptor.dart
+++ b/lib/utils/endpoint_failover_interceptor.dart
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@ import 'package:dio/dio.dart';
 
 import '../utils/app_logger.dart';
 
+/// Key used to stamp requests with the failover generation they were issued under.
+const _generationKey = '_failoverGeneration';
+
 /// Maintains the list of endpoints we can cycle through when one fails.
 class EndpointFailoverManager {
   EndpointFailoverManager(List<String> urls) {
@@ -11,6 +14,11 @@ class EndpointFailoverManager {
   late List<String> _endpoints;
   int _currentIndex = 0;
 
+  /// Incremented every time the active endpoint changes. Requests stamped with
+  /// an older generation should not trigger additional failover cascades.
+  int _generation = 0;
+  int get generation => _generation;
+
   List<String> get endpoints => List.unmodifiable(_endpoints);
 
   String get current => _endpoints[_currentIndex];
@@ -21,9 +29,20 @@ class EndpointFailoverManager {
   String? moveToNext() {
     if (!hasFallback) return null;
     _currentIndex++;
+    _generation++;
     return _endpoints[_currentIndex];
   }
 
+  /// Reset back to the first (preferred) endpoint. Called when all endpoints
+  /// are exhausted so the next failure cycle starts from the best candidate.
+  void resetToFirst() {
+    if (_currentIndex != 0) {
+      _currentIndex = 0;
+      _generation++;
+      appLogger.d('Failover endpoint list reset to first candidate');
+    }
+  }
+
   /// Replace the endpoint list and optionally set the active endpoint.
   void reset(List<String> urls, {String? currentBaseUrl}) {
     _setEndpoints(urls);
@@ -33,6 +52,7 @@ class EndpointFailoverManager {
     } else {
       _currentIndex = 0;
     }
+    _generation++;
   }
 
   void _setEndpoints(List<String> urls) {
@@ -65,9 +85,37 @@ class EndpointFailoverInterceptor extends Interceptor {
   final Future<void> Function(String newBaseUrl) _onEndpointSwitch;
   bool _isSwitching = false;
 
+  @override
+  void onRequest(RequestOptions options, RequestInterceptorHandler handler) {
+    // Stamp every outgoing request with the current failover generation so
+    // we can detect stale requests in onError.
+    options.extra[_generationKey] = endpointManager.generation;
+    handler.next(options);
+  }
+
   @override
   void onError(DioException err, ErrorInterceptorHandler handler) async {
-    if (_isSwitching || !_shouldAttemptFailover(err) || !endpointManager.hasFallback) {
+    if (_isSwitching || !_shouldAttemptFailover(err)) {
+      handler.next(err);
+      return;
+    }
+
+    // If the endpoint changed since this request was dispatched, the request
+    // timed out on an already-abandoned endpoint. Don't cascade another switch.
+    final requestGeneration = err.requestOptions.extra[_generationKey] as int?;
+    if (requestGeneration != null && requestGeneration != endpointManager.generation) {
+      appLogger.d(
+        'Skipping failover for stale request (generation $requestGeneration != ${endpointManager.generation})',
+        error: {'path': err.requestOptions.path},
+      );
+      handler.next(err);
+      return;
+    }
+
+    if (!endpointManager.hasFallback) {
+      // All endpoints exhausted — reset to first so the next failure cycle
+      // starts from the preferred endpoint (handles transient network outages).
+      endpointManager.resetToFirst();
       handler.next(err);
       return;
     }