diff --git a/packages/sync-core/README.md b/packages/sync-core/README.md
index 0c57e9ce15..0be7ef4ec5 100644
--- a/packages/sync-core/README.md
+++ b/packages/sync-core/README.md
@@ -29,6 +29,11 @@ const plain = await decrypt(cipher, password);
 
 All ciphertexts are base64-encoded for transport. The format is discriminated by length: `< 28` bytes is invalid, `< 44` bytes is unambiguously legacy, `>= 44` bytes is treated as Argon2id with a legacy fallback on auth failure. Do not change this without a versioning migration.
 
+### Salt and IV semantics
+
+- The **IV** (12 bytes) is freshly random per call. AES-GCM security under a fixed key reduces to IV uniqueness, which this guarantees.
+- The **salt** (16 bytes) is derived once per `(process session, password)` pair and reused across every `encrypt`/`encryptWithDerivedKey`/`encryptBatch` call in that session. This is intentional — it lets the session cache amortize the ~500 ms–2 s Argon2id derivation. Two encryptions of the same plaintext within a session therefore share the salt prefix and differ only in IV and ciphertext. Do not assert per-call salt uniqueness in tests.
+
 ### Session key caching
 
 `encrypt`/`decrypt`/`encryptBatch`/`decryptBatch` all share three in-memory caches (encrypt key, decrypt key by salt, legacy PBKDF2 key) that survive across sync cycles. Argon2id derivation is expensive (~500–2000 ms on mobile with the default 64 MiB / 3 iterations); the cache turns repeated syncs from minutes into seconds.
diff --git a/packages/sync-core/src/encryption.ts b/packages/sync-core/src/encryption.ts
index a54a111410..26a8995e86 100644
--- a/packages/sync-core/src/encryption.ts
+++ b/packages/sync-core/src/encryption.ts
@@ -17,6 +17,21 @@
  * by length: < 28 bytes is invalid, < 44 bytes is unambiguously legacy,
  * >= 44 bytes is treated as Argon2id with a legacy fallback on auth failure.
  *
+ * ## Salt and IV semantics
+ *
+ *   - **IV** is freshly random per call (12 bytes from CSPRNG). AES-GCM
+ *     confidentiality and integrity depend on IV uniqueness under a given key,
+ *     which this guarantees.
+ *   - **Salt** is derived once per (process session, password) and reused
+ *     across every `encrypt()` / `encryptWithDerivedKey()` / `encryptBatch()`
+ *     call in that session. This is intentional: it lets us amortize the
+ *     ~500ms-2s Argon2id derivation across many calls via the session cache.
+ *     A session-stable salt is safe because the derived key never changes for
+ *     the same (salt, password) pair, and AES-GCM security under a fixed key
+ *     reduces to IV uniqueness. Two encryptions of the same plaintext within
+ *     a session therefore share the salt prefix and differ only in IV +
+ *     ciphertext — do not assert otherwise in tests.
+ *
  * ## Legacy-decrypt diagnostics
  *
  * Two complementary mechanisms surface legacy ciphertext to callers; both are
@@ -49,7 +64,6 @@ import { type DerivedKey, deriveKeyFromPassword } from './encryption/argon2';
 import {
   getDecryptCache,
   getOrDeriveEncryptKey,
-  hasDecryptCache,
   setDecryptCache,
 } from './encryption/session-cache';
 import { decryptLegacy } from './encryption/legacy';
@@ -266,8 +280,7 @@ export const decryptBatch = async (
   interface ArgonItem {
     index: number;
     format: 'argon2';
-    cacheKey: string;
-    salt: Uint8Array;
+    saltBase64: string;
     buffer: ArrayBuffer;
   }
   interface LegacyItem {
@@ -276,9 +289,9 @@ export const decryptBatch = async (
     data: string;
   }
 
-  // Phase 1: analyze items, decode once, collect unique salts needing derivation.
+  // Phase 1: analyze items, decode once, collect every unique salt.
   const itemAnalysis: Array<ArgonItem | LegacyItem> = [];
-  const saltsNeedingDerivation = new Map<string, Uint8Array>();
+  const uniqueSalts = new Map<string, Uint8Array>();
 
   for (let i = 0; i < dataItems.length; i++) {
     const data = dataItems[i];
@@ -296,36 +309,40 @@ export const decryptBatch = async (
 
     const salt = new Uint8Array(buffer, 0, SALT_LENGTH);
     const saltBase64 = encodeBase64(salt);
-    const cacheKey = `${passwordHash}:${saltBase64}`;
 
-    itemAnalysis.push({ index: i, format: 'argon2', cacheKey, salt, buffer });
+    itemAnalysis.push({ index: i, format: 'argon2', saltBase64, buffer });
 
-    if (!hasDecryptCache(cacheKey) && !saltsNeedingDerivation.has(saltBase64)) {
-      saltsNeedingDerivation.set(saltBase64, salt);
+    if (!uniqueSalts.has(saltBase64)) {
+      uniqueSalts.set(saltBase64, salt);
     }
   }
 
-  // Phase 2: derive keys for unique salts SERIALLY.
-  // Argon2id is single-threaded and allocates 64MB per derivation; parallel
-  // derivations via Promise.all only interleave microtasks (no real parallelism)
-  // and risk OOM on mobile.
-  for (const [saltBase64, salt] of saltsNeedingDerivation) {
+  // Phase 2: derive keys for unique salts SERIALLY and keep them in a
+  // batch-local map. Argon2id is single-threaded and allocates 64MB per
+  // derivation; parallel derivations via Promise.all only interleave microtasks
+  // (no real parallelism) and risk OOM on mobile. Holding keys locally also
+  // ensures Phase 3 cannot see an entry evicted by the LRU session cache
+  // (capped at SESSION_DECRYPT_CACHE_MAX_SIZE) when a batch contains more
+  // unique salts than the cache can hold.
+  const batchKeys = new Map<string, DerivedKey>();
+  for (const [saltBase64, salt] of uniqueSalts) {
     const cacheKey = `${passwordHash}:${saltBase64}`;
-    if (hasDecryptCache(cacheKey)) {
-      continue;
+    let key = getDecryptCache(cacheKey);
+    if (!key) {
+      key = await deriveKeyFromPassword(password, salt);
+      setDecryptCache(cacheKey, key);
     }
-    const key = await deriveKeyFromPassword(password, salt);
-    setDecryptCache(cacheKey, key);
+    batchKeys.set(saltBase64, key);
   }
 
-  // Phase 3: decrypt all items in parallel using cached keys, reusing the
-  // buffer decoded in phase 1 to avoid a second base64 decode.
+  // Phase 3: decrypt all items in parallel using batch-local keys, reusing
+  // the buffer decoded in phase 1 to avoid a second base64 decode.
   const decryptionPromises = itemAnalysis.map(async (item) => {
     if (item.format === 'legacy') {
       return { index: item.index, result: await decryptLegacy(item.data, password) };
     }
 
-    const key = getDecryptCache(item.cacheKey)!;
+    const key = batchKeys.get(item.saltBase64)!;
     try {
       return {
         index: item.index,
diff --git a/packages/sync-core/src/encryption/session-cache.ts b/packages/sync-core/src/encryption/session-cache.ts
index eb767c6d69..46172197c0 100644
--- a/packages/sync-core/src/encryption/session-cache.ts
+++ b/packages/sync-core/src/encryption/session-cache.ts
@@ -63,9 +63,6 @@ export const getOrDeriveEncryptKey = async (password: string): Promise<DerivedKe
 export const getDecryptCache = (cacheKey: string): DerivedKey | undefined =>
   sessionDecryptKeyCache.get(cacheKey);
 
-export const hasDecryptCache = (cacheKey: string): boolean =>
-  sessionDecryptKeyCache.has(cacheKey);
-
 export const setDecryptCache = (cacheKey: string, key: DerivedKey): void => {
   if (sessionDecryptKeyCache.size >= SESSION_DECRYPT_CACHE_MAX_SIZE) {
     const firstKey = sessionDecryptKeyCache.keys().next().value;
diff --git a/packages/sync-core/src/encryption/web-crypto.ts b/packages/sync-core/src/encryption/web-crypto.ts
index 33a1f03b9b..9662b4814d 100644
--- a/packages/sync-core/src/encryption/web-crypto.ts
+++ b/packages/sync-core/src/encryption/web-crypto.ts
@@ -136,13 +136,17 @@ export const detectFormat = (
 };
 
 /**
- * Simple hash of password for cache key comparison (djb2).
- * NOT for security — just for cache invalidation when password changes.
+ * Returns an injective string identifier for a password, used as a cache-map
+ * key (and as a prefix in decrypt-cache keys like `${id}:${saltBase64}`).
+ *
+ * Length-prefixed so concatenation stays unambiguous even if the password
+ * contains the `:` separator used downstream. Holding the password verbatim
+ * is safe: these caches live in-memory in the same process that already holds
+ * the plaintext password.
+ *
+ * Earlier versions used a 32-bit djb2 hash; collisions would silently return
+ * a key derived from a different password, producing undecryptable ciphertext.
  */
 export const hashPasswordForCache = (password: string): string => {
-  let hash = 5381;
-  for (let i = 0; i < password.length; i++) {
-    hash = (hash * 33) ^ password.charCodeAt(i);
-  }
-  return (hash >>> 0).toString(16);
+  return `${password.length}:${password}`;
 };
diff --git a/packages/sync-core/tests/encryption.spec.ts b/packages/sync-core/tests/encryption.spec.ts
index d4f3f0a50a..974b532e99 100644
--- a/packages/sync-core/tests/encryption.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/sync-core/tests/encryption.spec.ts
@@ -284,6 +284,24 @@ describe('encryption', () => {
       expect(decrypted[0]).toBe('item-0');
       expect(decrypted[49]).toBe('item-49');
     });
+
+    // SESSION_DECRYPT_CACHE_MAX_SIZE is 100; if a batch contains more unique
+    // salts than the LRU cache can hold, early derivations get evicted before
+    // Phase 3 reads them. The implementation keeps derived keys in a
+    // batch-local map to keep this safe.
+    it('decrypts batches with more unique salts than the LRU cache holds', async () => {
+      clearSessionKeyCache();
+      const COUNT = 120;
+      const items = Array.from({ length: COUNT }, (_, i) => `item-${i}`);
+      const encrypted: string[] = [];
+      for (let i = 0; i < COUNT; i++) {
+        // Fresh derivation per item → unique salt per ciphertext
+        const key = await deriveKeyFromPassword(PASSWORD);
+        encrypted.push(await encryptWithDerivedKey(items[i], key));
+      }
+      const decrypted = await decryptBatch(encrypted, PASSWORD);
+      expect(decrypted).toEqual(items);
+    });
   });
 
   describe('Session key caching', () => {
diff --git a/packages/sync-providers/src/super-sync/super-sync.ts b/packages/sync-providers/src/super-sync/super-sync.ts
index c52cecce07..323e26d19b 100644
--- a/packages/sync-providers/src/super-sync/super-sync.ts
+++ b/packages/sync-providers/src/super-sync/super-sync.ts
@@ -853,8 +853,10 @@ export class SuperSyncProvider
         });
 
         if (!response.ok) {
-          clearTimeout(timeoutId);
+          // Keep the abort timer running across response.text() — a server/proxy
+          // that sends an error status and stalls the body must still be aborted.
           const errorText = await response.text().catch(() => '');
+          clearTimeout(timeoutId);
           // Check for auth failure FIRST before throwing generic error
           this._checkHttpStatus(response.status, errorText);
           const reason = this._extractServerErrorReason(errorText, response.status);