diff --git a/engine/src/main/kotlin/io/flamenet/e2e/Vault.kt b/engine/src/main/kotlin/io/flamenet/e2e/Vault.kt
index aa8f5ae..393688d 100644
--- a/engine/src/main/kotlin/io/flamenet/e2e/Vault.kt
+++ b/engine/src/main/kotlin/io/flamenet/e2e/Vault.kt
@@ -461,15 +461,42 @@ class Vault(private val storage: Storage, private val key: SecretKey) {
         Trust(
             identities = (0 until a.length()).map { a.getString(it) },
             verified = o.optBoolean("verified", false),
-            fnid = o.optString("fnid").ifEmpty { null },
+            // 🔴 **`"null"` is rejected, and that is not paranoia — records
+            // written that way are already on phones.** `saveTrust` used to
+            // write an explicit JSON null here, and Android's `org.json`
+            // coerces that to the four-character string on the way back out.
+            // See the note on [saveTrust]; this is the half that repairs what
+            // has already been stored.
+            fnid = o.optString("fnid").takeIf { it.isNotEmpty() && it != "null" },
             changed = o.optBoolean("changed", false),
         )
     }
 
+    /**
+     * 🔴 **The key is OMITTED when there is no address, never written as an
+     * explicit JSON null.** Android's bundled `org.json` reads a JSON null back
+     * as the four-character string `"null"`, so a contact pinned before their
+     * fnid was known reloaded with `fnid = "null"` — a non-null value that is
+     * not an address. What that caused:
+     *
+     * - `Trust.pin` compares a newly offered fnid against the pinned one and
+     *   treats a difference as a different person. `"null" != "fnid:…"`, so the
+     *   first time a real address arrived the contact was marked **CHANGED** —
+     *   the "security keys changed" warning, which is supposed to mean an
+     *   attack, fired on an ordinary first sighting.
+     * - `rememberIdentity` returns early once `fnid != null`, so the real
+     *   address was never resolved and the record stayed wrong for good.
+     * - `pinnedFnid` fed `"null"` into key-log verification, which recomputes a
+     *   leaf against the address a contact was accepted under. Every check
+     *   would have been against the wrong subject.
+     *
+     * An absent key reads as `""` on both platforms, which is what the reader
+     * has always expected.
+     */
     fun saveTrust(userId: Long, trust: Trust) = writeJson(trustName(userId), JSONObject()
         .put("identities", org.json.JSONArray(trust.identities))
         .put("verified", trust.verified)
-        .put("fnid", trust.fnid ?: JSONObject.NULL)
+        .also { if (trust.fnid != null) it.put("fnid", trust.fnid) }
         .put("changed", trust.changed))
 
     fun forgetTrust(userId: Long) = storage.delete(trustName(userId))
diff --git a/engine/src/test/kotlin/io/flamenet/e2e/VaultTest.kt b/engine/src/test/kotlin/io/flamenet/e2e/VaultTest.kt
index 003acc3..da915ad 100644
--- a/engine/src/test/kotlin/io/flamenet/e2e/VaultTest.kt
+++ b/engine/src/test/kotlin/io/flamenet/e2e/VaultTest.kt
@@ -315,4 +315,66 @@ class VaultTest {
         Vault(storage, secret).saveIdentity(identity)
         assertNotEquals(Bytes.b64(first), Bytes.b64(storage.records.getValue("identity")))
     }
+
+    // ---- Trust records and the platform's JSON ---------------------------
+
+    /**
+     * 🔴 **A contact with no known address must come back with NO address.**
+     *
+     * `saveTrust` used to write `"fnid": null` explicitly, and Android's
+     * bundled `org.json` reads a JSON null back as the four-character string
+     * `"null"` — a non-null value that is not an address. `Trust.pin` compares a
+     * newly offered fnid against the pinned one and treats a difference as a
+     * different person, so the first time a real address arrived the contact was
+     * marked **CHANGED**: the "security keys changed" warning, which is meant to
+     * mean an attack, fired on an ordinary first sighting.
+     *
+     * ⚠️ The JVM's `org.json` returns `""` there, so this passed on a laptop and
+     * failed on a phone. The two tests below cover both halves — what is
+     * written now, and what has to be tolerated because it is already on
+     * devices in the field.
+     */
+    @Test
+    fun `a trust record with no address writes no address at all`() {
+        val storage = MapStorage()
+        val secret = key()
+        Vault(storage, secret).saveTrust(7, Vault.Trust(listOf("aaa"), verified = false, fnid = null))
+
+        assertNull(Vault(storage, secret).loadTrust(7)?.fnid,
+            "an absent address came back as a value")
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * ⚠️ **This is the test that reproduces the device**, and the one above is
+     * not. On the JVM a real JSON null reads back as `""` whether the writer
+     * omits the key or not, so the round trip above passes with the bug intact.
+     * Handing the reader the literal string is what Android actually does, so
+     * writing it here is what makes a laptop run tell the truth.
+     */
+
+    @Test
+    fun `a record already holding the literal string null reads as no address`() {
+        // 🔴 Records written the old way exist on phones already. The reader has
+        // to repair them, or those contacts stay permanently mis-addressed —
+        // `rememberIdentity` returns early once `fnid != null`, so nothing would
+        // ever ask again.
+        val storage = MapStorage()
+        val secret = key()
+        val vault = Vault(storage, secret)
+        vault.saveTrust(7, Vault.Trust(listOf("aaa"), verified = false, fnid = "null"))
+
+        assertNull(Vault(storage, secret).loadTrust(7)?.fnid,
+            "the literal string \"null\" was accepted as somebody's global address")
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `a real address still round-trips`() {
+        val storage = MapStorage()
+        val secret = key()
+        Vault(storage, secret).saveTrust(
+            7, Vault.Trust(listOf("aaa"), verified = true, fnid = "fnid:abc123"))
+        val back = Vault(storage, secret).loadTrust(7)
+        assertEquals("fnid:abc123", back?.fnid)
+        assertTrue(back!!.verified)
+    }
 }