diff --git a/NucleicRemote/NucleicRemote/LiveActivityManager.swift b/NucleicRemote/NucleicRemote/LiveActivityManager.swift
index 61486bb..44b1de3 100644
--- a/NucleicRemote/NucleicRemote/LiveActivityManager.swift
+++ b/NucleicRemote/NucleicRemote/LiveActivityManager.swift
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ final class LiveActivityManager {
     /// totals on every transcript edit but no status) doesn't spend ActivityKit's update budget. The
     /// fresh churn still rides along on the next status-driven push.
     private func push(_ state: NucleicSessionAttributes.ContentState, hostName: String) {
-        guard let activity else {
+        guard activity != nil else {
             // No Activity yet — recover one that survived an app relaunch, or start a fresh one. The
             // dedup gate below only guards *updates* to a live Activity; creation must never sit
             // behind it. ActivityKit refuses a start unless the app has a foreground/background-