diff --git a/crates/ecstore/src/cluster/rpc/peer_rest_client.rs b/crates/ecstore/src/cluster/rpc/peer_rest_client.rs
index 64ceb292e..c566bd0a9 100644
--- a/crates/ecstore/src/cluster/rpc/peer_rest_client.rs
+++ b/crates/ecstore/src/cluster/rpc/peer_rest_client.rs
@@ -725,7 +725,7 @@ impl PeerRestClient {
     /// never take it offline no matter what its message says. The substring
     /// fallback only covers failures that exist purely as text, such as the
     /// dial errors `get_client` wraps.
-    fn is_network_like_error(err: &Error) -> bool {
+    pub(crate) fn is_network_like_error(err: &Error) -> bool {
         if let Error::Io(io_err) = err
             && let Some(status) = embedded_tonic_status(io_err)
         {
diff --git a/crates/ecstore/src/services/notification_sys.rs b/crates/ecstore/src/services/notification_sys.rs
index 0c78007c2..5158c82a7 100644
--- a/crates/ecstore/src/services/notification_sys.rs
+++ b/crates/ecstore/src/services/notification_sys.rs
@@ -1483,7 +1483,7 @@ impl NotificationSys {
             futures.push(async move {
                 let client = client.ok_or_else(|| Error::other(format!("scanner activity peer[{idx}] is unreachable")))?;
                 let host = client.grid_host.clone();
-                scanner_activity_with_timeout(SCANNER_ACTIVITY_PROBE_TIMEOUT, &host, client.scanner_activity())
+                scanner_activity_with_retry(&client, &host)
                     .await
                     .map(|activity| (host, activity))
             });
@@ -1962,6 +1962,46 @@ where
         .map_err(|_| Error::other(format!("scanner activity peer {host} timed out after {timeout_duration:?}")))?
 }
 
+fn scanner_activity_should_retry(first_error: Option<&Error>, timed_out: bool) -> bool {
+    timed_out || first_error.is_some_and(PeerRestClient::is_network_like_error)
+}
+
+/// Retry one activity probe after a bounded reconnect when the first attempt
+/// failed at the transport boundary.  A peer that answered with an invalid or
+/// incompatible activity response is not retried here: it must remain a hard
+/// fail-closed result for the all-peer publication proof.
+async fn scanner_activity_with_retry(client: &PeerRestClient, host: &str) -> Result<ScannerPeerActivity> {
+    let first = timeout(SCANNER_ACTIVITY_PROBE_TIMEOUT, client.scanner_activity()).await;
+    let should_retry = match &first {
+        Ok(Ok(_)) => false,
+        Ok(Err(err)) => scanner_activity_should_retry(Some(err), false),
+        Err(_) => scanner_activity_should_retry(None, true),
+    };
+
+    match first {
+        Ok(Ok(activity)) => return Ok(activity),
+        Ok(Err(err)) if !should_retry => return Err(err),
+        Ok(Err(err)) => {
+            debug!(peer = host, error = %err, "scanner activity probe failed on first transport attempt; reconnecting");
+            client.prepare_retry().await;
+        }
+        Err(_) => {
+            debug!(peer = host, timeout = ?SCANNER_ACTIVITY_PROBE_TIMEOUT, "scanner activity probe timed out on first attempt; reconnecting");
+            client.prepare_retry().await;
+        }
+    }
+
+    match timeout(SCANNER_ACTIVITY_PROBE_TIMEOUT, client.scanner_activity()).await {
+        Ok(result) => result,
+        Err(_) => {
+            client.evict_connection().await;
+            Err(Error::other(format!(
+                "scanner activity peer {host} timed out after retry ({SCANNER_ACTIVITY_PROBE_TIMEOUT:?})"
+            )))
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 #[allow(dead_code, reason = "asserted by this file's tests (backlog#1823)")]
 async fn call_peer_with_timeout<F, Fut>(
     timeout_dur: Duration,
@@ -2882,6 +2922,20 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(err.to_string().contains("peer-1"));
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn scanner_activity_retry_only_reconnects_transport_failures() {
+        assert!(scanner_activity_should_retry(None, true));
+        assert!(scanner_activity_should_retry(Some(&Error::other("connection refused")), false));
+        assert!(!scanner_activity_should_retry(
+            Some(&Error::other("peer returned an invalid scanner activity response proof")),
+            false
+        ));
+        assert!(!scanner_activity_should_retry(
+            Some(&Error::from(tonic::Status::internal("peer rejected activity"))),
+            false
+        ));
+    }
+
     #[tokio::test]
     async fn scanner_dirty_usage_acknowledgement_rejects_missing_and_duplicate_targets() {
         let sys = NotificationSys {