diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7a31d1d..3e09f56 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -193,9 +193,10 @@ launch, because no device key is registered.
 
 ### Moving files
 
-**FILES** in the nav rail is a two-pane browser: this machine on the left, the host on the right, and a
-queue underneath. Choose a host, press **CONNECT**, then select a file in either pane and press the arrow
-pointing the way you want it to go.
+**SFTP** and **S3** in the tab strip are a two-pane browser: this machine on the left, the remote on the
+right, and a queue underneath. The right-hand pane opens on an invitation rather than a listing — press
+**SELECT HOST**, choose one, press **CONNECT** — and once something is open, select a file in either pane
+and press the arrow pointing the way you want it to go.
 
 Two things about it are worth expecting rather than discovering.
 
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Views/TransfersScreen.axaml b/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Views/TransfersScreen.axaml
index 2a2d0a9..1d9d638 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Views/TransfersScreen.axaml
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.App/Views/TransfersScreen.axaml
@@ -14,6 +14,21 @@
     panes are symmetrical apart from one column: PERMS is remote-only, because a POSIX mode is not a fact
     about a file on the machine this client is developed on.
 
+    ── v3 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+    ◆ THE CONNECT BAR IS GONE, and everything it held is inside the right-hand pane now.
+
+    It was a 44-pixel strip across the top of the screen holding a heading, a picker, a password box and a
+    button — chrome spanning both panes to configure one of them, and drawn at full width whether or not
+    anything was ever going to be connected. Underneath it sat a pane that was empty for exactly the same
+    reason, saying so in a sentence nobody had to be told twice.
+
+    So the pane says it instead. Disconnected, the right-hand half is an invitation where the listing would
+    be: what this screen is for, what pressing the button will cost, and the button. Connected, the
+    invitation is replaced by the listing and the connection states itself in a strip above it, beside the
+    control that closes it — which is the arrangement the two facts were always about. The heading the bar
+    carried is not reprinted anywhere: the tab in the strip says SFTP or S3, and it says it whether or not
+    this screen is showing.
+
     What the design has and this does not: `sftp over bastion-eu`, which needs jump hosts the connection
     layer has not got. See docs/design-import-gaps.md.
   -->
@@ -71,105 +86,10 @@
     </Style>
   </UserControl.Styles>
 
-  <Grid RowDefinitions="44,*,Auto">
-
-    <!-- ============ The host, and the connection ============ -->
-    <Border Grid.Row="0" Padding="14,0" BorderBrush="{StaticResource Border}" BorderThickness="0,0,0,1">
-      <Grid ColumnDefinitions="Auto,Auto,180,Auto,Auto,Auto,*" VerticalAlignment="Center">
-
-        <!--
-          The screen names whichever remote it is offering, because since v2 it is reached as two
-          destinations rather than one: SFTP and S3 are separate tabs in the strip — they were rail entries
-          until v3 — and this control draws both. A single "FILES" heading over a bucket picker would name
-          neither of them.
-        -->
-        <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Classes="mono" Text="SFTP" FontSize="12" FontWeight="SemiBold"
-                   LetterSpacing="1" Foreground="{StaticResource Text}" VerticalAlignment="Center"
-                   Margin="0,0,12,0" IsVisible="{Binding ShowsHostPicker}" />
-        <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Classes="mono" Text="S3" FontSize="12" FontWeight="SemiBold"
-                   LetterSpacing="1" Foreground="{StaticResource Text}" VerticalAlignment="Center"
-                   Margin="0,0,12,0" IsVisible="{Binding ShowsBucketPicker}" />
-
-        <!--
-          The HOST / BUCKET pair that used to sit here is gone: which sort of remote this screen offers is
-          now the tab you chose, and a toggle that silently moved you to the other one would leave the lit
-          tab naming a screen you are no longer on. What sets it is ShowFiles on the shell, which is what
-          the tab calls.
-        -->
-
-        <ComboBox Grid.Column="2" ItemsSource="{Binding Hosts}"
-                  SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedHost}"
-                  IsEnabled="{Binding !IsConnected}"
-                  IsVisible="{Binding ShowsHostPicker}"
-                  PlaceholderText="choose a host">
-          <ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
-            <DataTemplate x:DataType="vm:HostRowViewModel">
-              <StackPanel>
-                <TextBlock Classes="mono" Text="{Binding Label}" FontSize="12"
-                           Foreground="{StaticResource Text}" />
-                <TextBlock Classes="mono" Text="{Binding Address}" FontSize="10"
-                           Foreground="{StaticResource TextFaint}" />
-              </StackPanel>
-            </DataTemplate>
-          </ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
-        </ComboBox>
-
-        <ComboBox Grid.Column="2" ItemsSource="{Binding Buckets}"
-                  SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedBucket}"
-                  IsEnabled="{Binding !IsConnected}"
-                  IsVisible="{Binding ShowsBucketPicker}"
-                  PlaceholderText="choose a bucket">
-          <ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
-            <DataTemplate x:DataType="vm:ObjectStoreRowViewModel">
-              <StackPanel>
-                <TextBlock Classes="mono" Text="{Binding Label}" FontSize="12"
-                           Foreground="{StaticResource Text}" />
-                <TextBlock Classes="mono" Text="{Binding Description}" FontSize="10"
-                           Foreground="{StaticResource TextFaint}" />
-              </StackPanel>
-            </DataTemplate>
-          </ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
-        </ComboBox>
-
-        <!--
-          Only for a host bound to nothing, exactly as the hosts screen's box is — and it is a different box
-          holding a different value. This connection authenticates separately, so a password typed to open a
-          terminal was never offered here.
-        -->
-        <TextBox Grid.Column="3" Width="150" Margin="6,0,0,0" PasswordChar="•"
-                 Text="{Binding TypedPassword}" PlaceholderText="password"
-                 IsVisible="{Binding SelectedHostAsksForAPassword}"
-                 IsEnabled="{Binding !IsConnected}" />
-
-        <Button Grid.Column="4" Classes="accent" Content="{Binding ConnectLabel}" Margin="6,0,0,0"
-                Command="{Binding ConnectCommand}"
-                IsVisible="{Binding !IsConnected}"
-                IsEnabled="{Binding !IsBusy}" />
-
-        <Button Grid.Column="4" Classes="ghost" Content="DISCONNECT" Margin="6,0,0,0"
-                Command="{Binding DisconnectCommand}"
-                IsVisible="{Binding IsConnected}" />
-
-        <Border Grid.Column="5" Classes="chip accent" Margin="8,0,0,0"
-                IsVisible="{Binding IsConnected}">
-          <TextBlock Text="{Binding ConnectedTo}" />
-        </Border>
-
-        <!--
-          Column 6, not 5, which is where it used to be — sharing a cell with the connected chip, so the two
-          drew over each other for as long as anything was open. That was survivable while the status was
-          mostly read before connecting; it is not now, because refusing to switch between SFTP and S3 while
-          a session is live reports itself here, which is precisely when the chip is on screen.
-        -->
-        <TextBlock Grid.Column="6" Classes="hint" Text="{Binding Status}" FontSize="11.5"
-                   Margin="12,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Center" TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis"
-                   TextWrapping="NoWrap" />
-
-      </Grid>
-    </Border>
+  <Grid RowDefinitions="*,Auto">
 
     <!-- ============ The two panes ============ -->
-    <Grid Grid.Row="1" ColumnDefinitions="*,64,*">
+    <Grid Grid.Row="0" ColumnDefinitions="*,64,*">
 
       <!-- ==== This machine ==== -->
       <!--
@@ -292,13 +212,26 @@
       </Border>
 
       <!-- ==== The host ==== -->
-      <Grid Grid.Column="2" x:Name="RemotePane" RowDefinitions="Auto,Auto,Auto,Auto,*"
+      <!--
+        Six rows rather than five: the connection's own strip is the new one, and it is inside this pane
+        rather than above both because it is about this pane and nothing else.
+      -->
+      <Grid Grid.Column="2" x:Name="RemotePane" RowDefinitions="Auto,Auto,Auto,Auto,Auto,*"
             DragDrop.AllowDrop="True">
 
         <Border Grid.Row="0" Padding="12,7" BorderBrush="{StaticResource BorderSubtle}"
                 BorderThickness="0,0,0,1">
           <Grid ColumnDefinitions="Auto,*,Auto">
-            <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Classes="label" Text="HOST" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
+            <!--
+              Which kind of remote this pane is for, in the place the local pane names itself. It is the
+              only thing left saying so on the screen itself — the bar that used to print SFTP or S3 across
+              the top is gone — and the pair is worth keeping apart, because HOST and BUCKET is the
+              difference between a directory tree and a flat namespace with inferred folders in it.
+            -->
+            <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Classes="label" Text="HOST" VerticalAlignment="Center"
+                       IsVisible="{Binding ShowsHostPicker}" />
+            <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Classes="label" Text="BUCKET" VerticalAlignment="Center"
+                       IsVisible="{Binding ShowsBucketPicker}" />
             <StackPanel Grid.Column="2" Orientation="Horizontal" Spacing="6">
               <Button Classes="ghost" Content="UP" Command="{Binding RemoteUpCommand}"
                       IsEnabled="{Binding IsConnected}" />
@@ -310,6 +243,32 @@
           </Grid>
         </Border>
 
+        <!--
+          ◆ WHAT IS OPEN, AND WHAT CLOSES IT. Only while something is.
+
+          A row of its own rather than three more cells in the header above, and the reason is arithmetic
+          rather than taste: this pane is 381 pixels wide at the window's minimum, UP, REFRESH and DELETE
+          take most of that, and an account-at-host chip beside a DISCONNECT would have pushed one of them
+          off the edge. The layout suite would have caught it — which is the point of stating the number
+          here, so the next thing added to either row is measured against it rather than tried.
+
+          Two things and a gap, and the gap is the point: the status line was tried here and does not fit.
+          What is left after a 170-pixel address and a DISCONNECT is about eighty pixels, which turns every
+          sentence into its first word and an ellipsis. It is at the foot of the screen instead — see the
+          queue's own strip, which has the width for one.
+        -->
+        <Border Grid.Row="1" Padding="12,6" Background="{StaticResource Raised}"
+                BorderBrush="{StaticResource BorderSubtle}" BorderThickness="0,0,0,1"
+                IsVisible="{Binding IsConnected}">
+          <Grid ColumnDefinitions="Auto,*,Auto">
+            <Border Grid.Column="0" Classes="chip accent" MaxWidth="170">
+              <TextBlock Text="{Binding ConnectedTo}" TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis" />
+            </Border>
+            <Button Grid.Column="2" Classes="ghost" Content="DISCONNECT"
+                    Command="{Binding DisconnectCommand}" />
+          </Grid>
+        </Border>
+
         <!--
           The question DELETE asks. Under the button rather than over the pane, so the row it is about is
           still on screen and still selected while it is being answered — and it names the full path rather
@@ -319,7 +278,7 @@
           application deletes is a tombstone against a copy the server still has, and a file on somebody's
           host is bytes with nothing behind them.
         -->
-        <Border Grid.Row="1" Padding="12,10" Background="{StaticResource DangerWash}"
+        <Border Grid.Row="2" Padding="12,10" Background="{StaticResource DangerWash}"
                 BorderBrush="{StaticResource DangerSoft}" BorderThickness="0,0,0,1"
                 IsVisible="{Binding IsConfirmingRemoteDeletion}">
           <StackPanel Spacing="7">
@@ -338,7 +297,7 @@
           </StackPanel>
         </Border>
 
-        <Grid Grid.Row="2" ColumnDefinitions="*,Auto" Margin="12,6,12,4">
+        <Grid Grid.Row="3" ColumnDefinitions="*,Auto" Margin="12,6,12,4">
           <ItemsControl Grid.Column="0" ItemsSource="{Binding RemoteTrail}" VerticalAlignment="Center">
             <ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
               <ItemsPanelTemplate>
@@ -373,14 +332,14 @@
           </StackPanel>
         </Grid>
 
-        <Grid Grid.Row="3" ColumnDefinitions="2,*,84,110,92" Margin="0,2,12,4">
+        <Grid Grid.Row="4" ColumnDefinitions="2,*,84,110,92" Margin="0,2,12,4">
           <TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Classes="label" Text="NAME" FontSize="9.5" Margin="12,0,8,0" />
           <TextBlock Grid.Column="2" Classes="label" Text="SIZE" FontSize="9.5" />
           <TextBlock Grid.Column="3" Classes="label" Text="MODIFIED" FontSize="9.5" />
           <TextBlock Grid.Column="4" Classes="label" Text="PERMS" FontSize="9.5" />
         </Grid>
 
-        <ListBox Grid.Row="4" x:Name="RemoteList" ItemsSource="{Binding RemoteEntries}"
+        <ListBox Grid.Row="5" x:Name="RemoteList" ItemsSource="{Binding RemoteEntries}"
                  SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedRemoteEntry}">
           <ListBox.ItemTemplate>
             <DataTemplate x:DataType="vm:RemoteEntryRowViewModel">
@@ -401,16 +360,143 @@
           </ListBox.ItemTemplate>
         </ListBox>
 
-        <StackPanel Grid.Row="4" Spacing="10" Margin="24" MaxWidth="300"
-                    HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center"
-                    IsVisible="{Binding !HasRemoteEntries}">
-          <TextBlock Classes="hint" FontSize="12" TextAlignment="Center"
-                     Text="Connect to a host to browse its files. This opens its own SFTP connection, so the host records a second login — it is not the same channel as a terminal."
-                     IsVisible="{Binding !IsConnected}" />
-          <TextBlock Classes="hint" FontSize="12" TextAlignment="Center"
-                     Text="Nothing in this directory."
-                     IsVisible="{Binding IsConnected}" />
-        </StackPanel>
+        <!--
+          A directory with nothing in it. It no longer has to say anything about not being connected: that
+          state is the invitation below, which covers this pane whole.
+        -->
+        <TextBlock Grid.Row="5" Classes="hint" FontSize="12" Margin="24" MaxWidth="300"
+                   HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" TextAlignment="Center"
+                   Text="Nothing in this directory." IsVisible="{Binding !HasRemoteEntries}" />
+
+        <!--
+          ============ THE INVITATION, which is what this screen opens on ============
+
+          Everything the connect bar used to hold, in the half of the screen it was always about. It covers
+          the pane from below the header to the bottom, opaquely: the breadcrumb, the column headings and
+          the empty listing are all still laid out underneath, and all three are furniture for a listing
+          that does not exist yet.
+
+          Two steps, not one. The first is an invitation with a button — a name for what this screen does, a
+          sentence about what it costs, and one thing to press — and the picker is the second. A combo box
+          sitting open in the middle of an empty pane would be a form with no question above it; the reason
+          the pane is empty is the question, and that is what the first step says.
+
+          ◆ The two steps also keep this inside its budget, which is the pane's height less whatever the
+          queue has taken — 268 pixels with three transfers on it. The sentence and the button go away when
+          the picker arrives, so the tall shape is the form rather than form-plus-prose, and neither shape
+          reaches the floor. Anything added here has to hold that; the layout suite measures both.
+        -->
+        <Border Grid.Row="1" Grid.RowSpan="5" Background="{StaticResource Canvas}"
+                IsVisible="{Binding !IsConnected}">
+          <StackPanel Spacing="10" Margin="20" MaxWidth="320"
+                      HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center">
+
+            <!--
+              The mark the hosts screen puts on a group, at the size an empty state can carry one. This
+              application ships no icon set — see the note on colour at the top of this file — so a glyph in
+              a rounded square is what an icon is here, and ▤ is already the one that means "a place things
+              are kept".
+            -->
+            <Border Width="44" Height="44" CornerRadius="12" HorizontalAlignment="Center"
+                    Background="{StaticResource Raised}" BorderBrush="{StaticResource Border}"
+                    BorderThickness="1">
+              <TextBlock Text="▤" FontSize="18" Foreground="{StaticResource TextDim}"
+                         HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" />
+            </Border>
+
+            <TextBlock Classes="heading" FontSize="16" TextAlignment="Center"
+                       Text="Connect to a host" IsVisible="{Binding ShowsHostPicker}" />
+            <TextBlock Classes="heading" FontSize="16" TextAlignment="Center"
+                       Text="Open a bucket" IsVisible="{Binding ShowsBucketPicker}" />
+
+            <!--
+              The sentence, and the button under it. Both go away once the picker is up — by then they have
+              been read or they have not — which is why they are one collapsing group rather than two
+              elements each answering the same question.
+
+              The sentence is the one the empty pane used to carry, and it is kept rather than dropped
+              because it is the one thing about this screen that surprises people: browsing files is a
+              second login, and it shows up in the host's auth log as one. The bucket's counterpart says
+              the opposite thing for the opposite reason — there is no session to open at all, so nothing
+              is dialled until a listing is asked for.
+            -->
+            <StackPanel Spacing="10" IsVisible="{Binding !IsChoosingRemote}">
+              <TextBlock Classes="hint" FontSize="12" TextAlignment="Center"
+                         IsVisible="{Binding ShowsHostPicker}"
+                         Text="Browsing a host's files opens its own SFTP connection, so the host records a second login — it is not the channel a terminal uses." />
+              <TextBlock Classes="hint" FontSize="12" TextAlignment="Center"
+                         IsVisible="{Binding ShowsBucketPicker}"
+                         Text="A bucket has nothing to connect to: the keys and the endpoint are tested by the first listing, not by opening a session." />
+              <Button Classes="accent" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Content="SELECT HOST"
+                      IsVisible="{Binding ShowsHostPicker}"
+                      Command="{Binding BeginChoosingRemoteCommand}" />
+              <Button Classes="accent" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Content="SELECT BUCKET"
+                      IsVisible="{Binding ShowsBucketPicker}"
+                      Command="{Binding BeginChoosingRemoteCommand}" />
+            </StackPanel>
+
+            <!-- ==== The picker, once it has been asked for ==== -->
+            <StackPanel Spacing="8" IsVisible="{Binding IsChoosingRemote}">
+
+              <ComboBox HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" ItemsSource="{Binding Hosts}"
+                        SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedHost}"
+                        IsVisible="{Binding ShowsHostPicker}"
+                        PlaceholderText="choose a host">
+                <ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
+                  <DataTemplate x:DataType="vm:HostRowViewModel">
+                    <StackPanel>
+                      <TextBlock Classes="mono" Text="{Binding Label}" FontSize="12"
+                                 Foreground="{StaticResource Text}" />
+                      <TextBlock Classes="mono" Text="{Binding Address}" FontSize="10"
+                                 Foreground="{StaticResource TextFaint}" />
+                    </StackPanel>
+                  </DataTemplate>
+                </ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
+              </ComboBox>
+
+              <ComboBox HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" ItemsSource="{Binding Buckets}"
+                        SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedBucket}"
+                        IsVisible="{Binding ShowsBucketPicker}"
+                        PlaceholderText="choose a bucket">
+                <ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
+                  <DataTemplate x:DataType="vm:ObjectStoreRowViewModel">
+                    <StackPanel>
+                      <TextBlock Classes="mono" Text="{Binding Label}" FontSize="12"
+                                 Foreground="{StaticResource Text}" />
+                      <TextBlock Classes="mono" Text="{Binding Description}" FontSize="10"
+                                 Foreground="{StaticResource TextFaint}" />
+                    </StackPanel>
+                  </DataTemplate>
+                </ComboBox.ItemTemplate>
+              </ComboBox>
+
+              <!--
+                Only for a host bound to nothing, exactly as the hosts screen's box is — and it is a
+                different box holding a different value. This connection authenticates separately, so a
+                password typed to open a terminal was never offered here.
+              -->
+              <TextBox PasswordChar="•" Text="{Binding TypedPassword}" PlaceholderText="password"
+                       IsVisible="{Binding SelectedHostAsksForAPassword}" />
+
+              <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" Spacing="8" HorizontalAlignment="Center">
+                <Button Classes="accent" Content="{Binding ConnectLabel}"
+                        Command="{Binding ConnectCommand}" IsEnabled="{Binding !IsBusy}" />
+                <Button Classes="ghost" Content="CANCEL"
+                        Command="{Binding CancelChoosingRemoteCommand}" />
+              </StackPanel>
+
+            </StackPanel>
+
+            <!--
+              The status line, in the state where the connected strip above is not on screen. Wrapped rather
+              than trimmed, unlike its counterpart up there: what lands here is a refusal with a reason in
+              it — a server's own sentence about why a connection did not open — and an ellipsis through the
+              middle of that is a message that has been shown without being said.
+            -->
+            <TextBlock Classes="hint" FontSize="11.5" TextAlignment="Center" Text="{Binding Status}" />
+
+          </StackPanel>
+        </Border>
 
         <!--
           Two highlights rather than one, because refusing is worth showing. Something dragged over a
@@ -418,11 +504,11 @@
           window that has stopped answering, and the answer arriving after the drop is the answer arriving
           too late. See the local pane for why neither may hit-test.
         -->
-        <Border Grid.Row="0" Grid.RowSpan="5" IsHitTestVisible="False"
+        <Border Grid.Row="0" Grid.RowSpan="6" IsHitTestVisible="False"
                 Background="{StaticResource AccentWash}" BorderBrush="{StaticResource Accent}"
                 BorderThickness="2" IsVisible="{Binding IsRemoteDropTarget}" />
 
-        <Border Grid.Row="0" Grid.RowSpan="5" IsHitTestVisible="False"
+        <Border Grid.Row="0" Grid.RowSpan="6" IsHitTestVisible="False"
                 Background="{StaticResource DangerWash}" BorderBrush="{StaticResource DangerSoft}"
                 BorderThickness="2" IsVisible="{Binding IsRemoteDropRefused}">
           <TextBlock Classes="hint" Text="Connect to a host first." FontSize="12"
@@ -435,7 +521,7 @@
     </Grid>
 
     <!-- ============ The queue ============ -->
-    <Border Grid.Row="2" Background="{StaticResource Sidebar}" BorderBrush="{StaticResource Border}"
+    <Border Grid.Row="1" Background="{StaticResource Sidebar}" BorderBrush="{StaticResource Border}"
             BorderThickness="0,1,0,0" MaxHeight="196">
       <Grid RowDefinitions="Auto,*">
 
@@ -445,6 +531,22 @@
             <TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Classes="mono" FontSize="10.5" Margin="10,0,0,0"
                        Foreground="{StaticResource TextFaint}" VerticalAlignment="Center"
                        Text="one at a time · nothing lands at its final name until it is complete" />
+
+            <!--
+              ◆ THE STATUS LINE, in the state where the remote pane has no room for one.
+
+              It is here rather than beside DISCONNECT because this row spans the window and that one spans
+              half of it: what the screen has to say about a session is a sentence, and a sentence needs the
+              width. Only while something is open — the other half of the time it is inside the invitation
+              in the remote pane, next to the button that provoked it, which is where a refusal has to be.
+
+              Right-aligned in a free column, so it reads as this row's other end rather than as a third
+              clause of the sentence to its left.
+            -->
+            <TextBlock Grid.Column="2" Classes="hint" FontSize="11.5" Margin="16,0,0,0"
+                       HorizontalAlignment="Right" VerticalAlignment="Center"
+                       TextTrimming="CharacterEllipsis" TextWrapping="NoWrap"
+                       Text="{Binding Status}" IsVisible="{Binding IsConnected}" />
           </Grid>
         </Border>
 
@@ -511,7 +613,7 @@
       they arrive here on their own because this is a separate connection — a host trusted for a shell is
       trusted for this too, but a host nobody has connected to at all is met here first.
     -->
-    <Border Grid.Row="0" Grid.RowSpan="3" Background="{StaticResource Canvas}"
+    <Border Grid.Row="0" Grid.RowSpan="2" Background="{StaticResource Canvas}"
             IsVisible="{Binding HasPendingHostKey}">
       <Border Classes="card">
         <StackPanel Spacing="12">
@@ -528,7 +630,7 @@
       </Border>
     </Border>
 
-    <Border Grid.Row="0" Grid.RowSpan="3" Background="{StaticResource Canvas}"
+    <Border Grid.Row="0" Grid.RowSpan="2" Background="{StaticResource Canvas}"
             IsVisible="{Binding HasHostKeyMismatch}">
       <Border Classes="card" BorderBrush="{StaticResource DangerSoft}">
         <StackPanel Spacing="12">
diff --git a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/TransfersViewModel.cs b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/TransfersViewModel.cs
index 119dba9..012eb7c 100644
--- a/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/TransfersViewModel.cs
+++ b/src/DodoSSH.Client.Shell/ViewModels/TransfersViewModel.cs
@@ -357,6 +357,30 @@ internal sealed partial class TransfersViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDispo
     /// <summary>Whether the picker is showing buckets.</summary>
     internal bool ShowsBucketPicker => Remote is RemoteKind.Bucket;
 
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Whether the picker is open, as opposed to the invitation that offers it.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// The desktop's connect bar is gone — a strip of controls across the top of a screen that is not
+    /// connected to anything, asking a question the empty right-hand pane was already asking silently. What
+    /// replaced it is the pane itself: an invitation where the listing would be, and this flag is the step
+    /// between "connect to a host" and the picker that does it.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// Two steps rather than a picker sitting open, because the pane is the whole answer to "why is this
+    /// half of the screen empty" and a combo box does not say that. The phone does not use this: its screen
+    /// is one pane at a time, so the picker <em>is</em> what it shows before a connection exists.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// It is cleared by everything that changes what the picker would be picking — connecting, disconnecting,
+    /// switching between SFTP and S3, and losing the vault — so an open form is never left over a pane that
+    /// has moved on. See the property-changed hooks at the foot of this file.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    [ObservableProperty]
+    private bool isChoosingRemote;
+
     /// <summary>
     /// What the button that opens the remote says.
     /// </summary>
@@ -375,8 +399,15 @@ internal sealed partial class TransfersViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDispo
     [ObservableProperty]
     private string typedPassword = string.Empty;
 
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// It opens saying what the state is rather than what to do about it, and that is a v3 change the
+    /// desktop forced. "Choose a host and connect to browse its files" was this line for two versions, and
+    /// it was the only thing on the screen saying so — the connect bar it sat in had a picker and a button
+    /// and no prose at all. The invitation that replaced the bar says it in a heading, a sentence and a
+    /// button, so a status line repeating it underneath was the same instruction three times.
+    /// </remarks>
     [ObservableProperty]
-    private string status = "Choose a host and connect to browse its files.";
+    private string status = "Nothing is open yet.";
 
     [ObservableProperty]
     private bool isBusy;
@@ -563,6 +594,10 @@ internal sealed partial class TransfersViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDispo
         SelectedHost = null;
         SelectedBucket = null;
         TypedPassword = string.Empty;
+
+        // The picker with it. Its two lists have just been emptied, so leaving it open would show a form
+        // offering a choice between nothing.
+        IsChoosingRemote = false;
     }
 
     // ShowRemoteCommand was here, and it went with the toggle that invoked it. Which kind of remote this
@@ -570,6 +605,25 @@ internal sealed partial class TransfersViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDispo
     // MainWindowViewModel.ShowFiles, which sets Remote directly because it has a refusal to make first.
     // Keeping the command would have left one nothing could invoke.
 
+    /// <summary>Opens the picker, from the invitation in the empty remote pane.</summary>
+    [RelayCommand]
+    private void BeginChoosingRemote() => IsChoosingRemote = true;
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Puts the picker away without connecting.
+    /// </summary>
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// The typed password goes with it. It is a secret nobody asked to keep, and leaving it in the box would
+    /// mean the next person to open the picker — for a different host, possibly — starts with somebody
+    /// else's password already typed in.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [RelayCommand]
+    private void CancelChoosingRemote()
+    {
+        IsChoosingRemote = false;
+        TypedPassword = string.Empty;
+    }
+
     /// <summary>Opens the chosen remote, whichever kind it is.</summary>
     [RelayCommand]
     private Task ConnectAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken) =>
@@ -1390,6 +1444,11 @@ internal sealed partial class TransfersViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDispo
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(ShowsBucketPicker));
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(ConnectLabel));
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(SelectedHostAsksForAPassword));
+
+        // Arriving at the other destination shows its invitation rather than a picker somebody left open on
+        // this one — and the picker it would have left open is the wrong one, since the two kinds have
+        // different lists behind them.
+        IsChoosingRemote = false;
     }
 
     partial void OnIsConnectedChanged(bool value)
@@ -1397,6 +1456,11 @@ internal sealed partial class TransfersViewModel : ObservableObject, IAsyncDispo
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(CanDownload));
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(CanUpload));
         OnPropertyChanged(nameof(CanDeleteRemote));
+
+        // Both ways, and the disconnecting half is the one worth stating: closing a session puts the pane
+        // back to its invitation rather than to the form, so what the pane shows after a disconnect is the
+        // same thing it showed before anything was ever connected.
+        IsChoosingRemote = false;
     }
 
     /// <remarks>
diff --git a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Layout.Tests/ScreenLayoutTests.cs b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Layout.Tests/ScreenLayoutTests.cs
index ae30074..1b8f258 100644
--- a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Layout.Tests/ScreenLayoutTests.cs
+++ b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Layout.Tests/ScreenLayoutTests.cs
@@ -926,6 +926,83 @@ public sealed class ScreenLayoutTests : IAsyncLifetime
         await MeasureTransfersAsync(faults => faults.ShouldBeEmpty());
     }
 
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// ◆ The tallest the invitation gets, and the shape the connect bar's removal has to survive. Everything
+    /// that used to be a strip across the top of the screen is now stacked in the right-hand pane — a
+    /// picker, a password box and two buttons, under a heading — and that pane is only as tall as whatever
+    /// the queue leaves it.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// So the queue is filled first, which is what takes it to its 196-pixel maximum and leaves the panes
+    /// their least. Without those rows this measures the invitation with nearly twice the room it is
+    /// guaranteed, which is the version of this test that would pass whatever was added to the panel.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// No host is selected on purpose: a picker with nothing chosen shows the password box, because a host
+    /// that names neither a key nor a credential is one that will ask for a password. That is the shape with
+    /// the extra row in it.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task TheTransfersScreenFitsWithTheHostPickerOpenOverAFullQueue()
+    {
+        Enqueue(TransferDirection.Download, "artefact.tar.gz", 402_653_184, 149_000_000,
+            TransferState.Running, bytesPerSecond: 6_500_000);
+
+        Enqueue(TransferDirection.Upload, "site-backup-2026-07-30.sql.gz", 8_100_000_000, 3_200_000_000,
+            TransferState.Cancelled);
+
+        Enqueue(TransferDirection.Upload, "deploy.sh", 4_096, 0, TransferState.Failed);
+
+        transfers.BeginChoosingRemoteCommand.Execute(null);
+
+        transfers.IsChoosingRemote.ShouldBeTrue();
+        transfers.SelectedHostAsksForAPassword
+            .ShouldBeTrue("the password box is what makes this the tall shape");
+
+        await MeasureTransfersAsync(faults => faults.ShouldBeEmpty("with the picker open"));
+    }
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// The bucket half of the picker, which differs by one row: no password box, because an object store
+    /// carries its keys in the vault and has nothing to type. Measured because the two are separate markup
+    /// rather than one picker with its items swapped — see the note on <c>RemoteKind</c>.
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task TheTransfersScreenFitsWithTheBucketPickerOpen()
+    {
+        transfers.Remote = RemoteKind.Bucket;
+        transfers.BeginChoosingRemoteCommand.Execute(null);
+
+        transfers.ShowsBucketPicker.ShouldBeTrue();
+        transfers.SelectedHostAsksForAPassword.ShouldBeFalse("a bucket never asks for one");
+
+        await MeasureTransfersAsync(faults => faults.ShouldBeEmpty("with the bucket picker open"));
+    }
+
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// The state the screen is in once something is open, and the reason it is worth a test of its own is
+    /// the strip the connect bar left behind: a chip naming the account and the endpoint, the status line,
+    /// and DISCONNECT — inside a pane that is under 400 pixels wide at the window's minimum, above a row
+    /// that already carries UP, REFRESH and DELETE.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// The address is a long one deliberately. It is the part of that row with no fixed width, and a chip
+    /// that grew to fit whatever it was given is how the button beside it goes off the edge.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task TheTransfersScreenFitsWithASessionOpen()
+    {
+        transfers.IsConnected = true;
+        transfers.ConnectedTo = "deployment-service@releases.eu-west.internal.example:2222";
+        transfers.Status = "Connected to releases-eu.";
+
+        await MeasureTransfersAsync(faults => faults.ShouldBeEmpty("with a session open"));
+    }
+
     /// <remarks>
     /// The trust card covers the whole screen, and it is the one thing here a user cannot get past without
     /// pressing something — so a button of its own that fell outside the window would leave the screen
diff --git a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/ShellFlowTests.cs b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/ShellFlowTests.cs
index bd14088..0e2b22c 100644
--- a/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/ShellFlowTests.cs
+++ b/tests/DodoSSH.Client.App.Tests/ShellFlowTests.cs
@@ -5314,6 +5314,67 @@ public sealed class ShellFlowTests : IAsyncLifetime
         shell.Transfers.RemoteEntries.Select(entry => entry.Name).ShouldBe(["notes.txt"]);
     }
 
+    /// <remarks>
+    /// <para>
+    /// The picker that replaced the desktop's connect bar, and the four things that put it away again. It
+    /// is a flag rather than a screen, so what is worth asserting is that it is never left open over a pane
+    /// it no longer belongs to: connecting closes it, disconnecting closes it, moving between SFTP and S3
+    /// closes it, and losing the vault closes it.
+    /// </para>
+    /// <para>
+    /// The last two are the ones that would rot quietly. A picker surviving a hop to the other tab offers
+    /// hosts on a screen showing buckets, and one surviving a lock offers a list that has just been emptied
+    /// because its rows carried decrypted secrets.
+    /// </para>
+    /// </remarks>
+    [Fact]
+    public async Task TheFilePickerIsPutAwayByEverythingThatChangesWhatItWouldBePicking()
+    {
+        var vault = await ReadyToConnectAsync();
+
+        shell.Transfers.Attach(vault, knownHosts);
+        shell.Transfers.IsChoosingRemote.ShouldBeFalse("the pane opens on its invitation");
+
+        // Connecting.
+        shell.Transfers.BeginChoosingRemoteCommand.Execute(null);
+        shell.Transfers.SelectedHost = shell.Transfers.Hosts[0];
+
+        await shell.Transfers.ConnectCommand.ExecuteAsync(null);
+
+        shell.Transfers.IsConnected.ShouldBeTrue(shell.Transfers.Status);
+        shell.Transfers.IsChoosingRemote.ShouldBeFalse("what is open is the listing now");
+
+        // Disconnecting, which puts the pane back to the invitation rather than to the form.
+        await shell.Transfers.DisconnectCommand.ExecuteAsync(null);
+
+        shell.Transfers.IsConnected.ShouldBeFalse(shell.Transfers.Status);
+        shell.Transfers.IsChoosingRemote.ShouldBeFalse();
+
+        // Moving to the other destination, which has a different list behind it.
+        shell.Transfers.BeginChoosingRemoteCommand.Execute(null);
+        shell.ShowFilesCommand.Execute(RemoteKind.Bucket);
+
+        shell.Transfers.ShowsBucketPicker.ShouldBeTrue();
+        shell.Transfers.IsChoosingRemote.ShouldBeFalse("that picker was offering hosts");
+
+        // Cancelling, which also takes the typed password with it.
+        shell.Transfers.BeginChoosingRemoteCommand.Execute(null);
+        shell.Transfers.TypedPassword = "hunter2";
+
+        shell.Transfers.CancelChoosingRemoteCommand.Execute(null);
+
+        shell.Transfers.IsChoosingRemote.ShouldBeFalse();
+        shell.Transfers.TypedPassword.ShouldBeEmpty("a secret nobody asked to keep");
+
+        // And losing the vault, which empties both lists.
+        shell.Transfers.BeginChoosingRemoteCommand.Execute(null);
+
+        await shell.LockCommand.ExecuteAsync(null);
+
+        shell.Transfers.Hosts.ShouldBeEmpty();
+        shell.Transfers.IsChoosingRemote.ShouldBeFalse("a form offering a choice between nothing");
+    }
+
     private async Task UnlockedAsync()
     {
         await EnrolledAndConfirmedAsync();