diff --git a/packages/common/src/api/tan-query/tracks/useDownloadTrackStems.ts b/packages/common/src/api/tan-query/tracks/useDownloadTrackStems.ts
index ea3d4424e70..09627688c84 100644
--- a/packages/common/src/api/tan-query/tracks/useDownloadTrackStems.ts
+++ b/packages/common/src/api/tan-query/tracks/useDownloadTrackStems.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import { useEffect, useRef } from 'react'
+
 import { Id } from '@audius/sdk'
 import { useMutation, useQuery, useQueryClient } from '@tanstack/react-query'
 
@@ -10,6 +12,10 @@ import { useCurrentUserId } from '../users/account/useCurrentUserId'
 
 import { useTrack } from './useTrack'
 
+// Stop polling the archive job after this long even if it never transitions
+// out of `active`, so the UI can surface an error instead of spinning forever.
+const STEMS_ARCHIVE_POLL_TIMEOUT_MS = 300_000 // 5 minutes
+
 type GetStemsArchiveJobStatusResponse = {
   id: string
   state:
@@ -109,6 +115,13 @@ export const useGetStemsArchiveJobStatus = (
 ) => {
   const { audiusSdk } = useQueryContext()
 
+  // Track when polling for this job began so we can enforce a hard timeout even
+  // if the job never transitions out of `active`.
+  const jobStartTimeRef = useRef<number | null>(null)
+  useEffect(() => {
+    jobStartTimeRef.current = jobId ? Date.now() : null
+  }, [jobId])
+
   return useQuery({
     queryKey: getStemsArchiveJobQueryKey(jobId),
     queryFn: async () => {
@@ -124,6 +137,15 @@ export const useGetStemsArchiveJobStatus = (
     },
     // refetch once per second until the job is completed or failed
     refetchInterval: (query) => {
+      // Hard stop: give up polling after the timeout even if the job is still
+      // reported as active, so we don't spin forever on a stalled job.
+      const jobStartTime = jobStartTimeRef.current
+      if (
+        jobStartTime !== null &&
+        Date.now() - jobStartTime > STEMS_ARCHIVE_POLL_TIMEOUT_MS
+      ) {
+        return false
+      }
       if (!query.state.data) {
         return 1000
       }
diff --git a/packages/mobile/src/screens/contest-screen/ContestScreen.tsx b/packages/mobile/src/screens/contest-screen/ContestScreen.tsx
index 737d8e98b48..91b4805b4b4 100644
--- a/packages/mobile/src/screens/contest-screen/ContestScreen.tsx
+++ b/packages/mobile/src/screens/contest-screen/ContestScreen.tsx
@@ -220,7 +220,7 @@ export const ContestScreen = () => {
         source: ShareSource.PAGE
       })
     )
-  }, [dispatch, trackId, contest?.permalink])
+  }, [dispatch, trackId])
 
   // Pull-to-refresh: invalidate the contest's event + comment queries so all
   // tabs (details, updates, submissions, comments) refetch the next time
diff --git a/packages/web/src/components/download-track-archive-modal/DownloadTrackArchiveModal.tsx b/packages/web/src/components/download-track-archive-modal/DownloadTrackArchiveModal.tsx
index d256411235c..7ee712b057d 100644
--- a/packages/web/src/components/download-track-archive-modal/DownloadTrackArchiveModal.tsx
+++ b/packages/web/src/components/download-track-archive-modal/DownloadTrackArchiveModal.tsx
@@ -73,13 +73,16 @@ const DownloadTrackArchiveModalContent = ({
 
   const { mutate: cancelStemsArchiveJob } = useCancelStemsArchiveJob()
 
-  const { data: jobStatus } = useGetStemsArchiveJobStatus({
-    jobId
-  })
+  const { data: jobStatus, isError: isJobStatusError } =
+    useGetStemsArchiveJobStatus({
+      jobId
+    })
 
   const hasError =
     !isStartingDownload &&
-    (initiateDownloadFailed || jobStatus?.state === 'failed')
+    (initiateDownloadFailed ||
+      jobStatus?.state === 'failed' ||
+      (!!jobId && isJobStatusError))
 
   useEffect(() => {
     if (hasError) {