diff --git a/src/lib/server/queue/QueueProcessor.ts b/src/lib/server/queue/QueueProcessor.ts
index f7d8d2b..c19dff3 100644
--- a/src/lib/server/queue/QueueProcessor.ts
+++ b/src/lib/server/queue/QueueProcessor.ts
@@ -23,18 +23,60 @@ import { env } from '$env/dynamic/private';
 import type { ProgressEvent, ExtractedContent, ProgressCallback } from '$lib/server/extraction';
 import type { QueueItem } from './types';
 
-// Feature flag: pick which Instagram extractor backend to invoke.
-// Default to yt-dlp; set EXTRACTOR_BACKEND=playwright to fall back to the
-// legacy stealth scraper while we verify the new path.
-const extractTextAndThumbnail = (
+/**
+ * Instagram caption truncation marker: yt-dlp's GraphQL path returns a
+ * caption ending with "…." (U+2026 + ".") when Instagram cut it short.
+ * When we detect this, fall back to the Playwright extractor which intercepts
+ * the full caption from live network traffic (requires a valid auth.json).
+ */
+const TRUNCATION_SUFFIX = '\u2026.';
+
+async function extractTextAndThumbnail(
 	url: string,
 	cb?: ProgressCallback
-): Promise<ExtractedContent> => {
+): Promise<ExtractedContent> {
 	const backend = (env.EXTRACTOR_BACKEND ?? 'ytdlp').toLowerCase();
-	return backend === 'playwright'
-		? extractWithPlaywright(url, cb)
-		: extractWithYtDlp(url, cb);
-};
+
+	if (backend === 'playwright') {
+		return extractWithPlaywright(url, cb);
+	}
+
+	// Primary path: yt-dlp (fast, no browser)
+	const result = await extractWithYtDlp(url, cb);
+
+	// Truncation detected → fall back to Playwright for the full caption
+	if (result.bodyText.endsWith(TRUNCATION_SUFFIX)) {
+		cb?.({
+			type: 'status',
+			message: 'Caption truncated by Instagram API — retrying with browser extraction...',
+			timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
+		});
+		try {
+			const playwrightResult = await extractWithPlaywright(url, cb);
+			if (playwrightResult.bodyText && !playwrightResult.bodyText.endsWith(TRUNCATION_SUFFIX)) {
+				cb?.({
+					type: 'status',
+					message: `Full caption retrieved via browser (${playwrightResult.bodyText.length} chars)`,
+					timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
+				});
+				// Prefer yt-dlp thumbnail if Playwright didn't get one
+				return {
+					bodyText: playwrightResult.bodyText,
+					thumbnail: playwrightResult.thumbnail ?? result.thumbnail
+				};
+			}
+		} catch (e) {
+			// Playwright fallback failed — surface the original yt-dlp result
+			cb?.({
+				type: 'status',
+				message: `Browser fallback failed (${e instanceof Error ? e.message : String(e)}), using partial caption`,
+				timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
+			});
+		}
+	}
+
+	return result;
+}
 
 /**
  * Queue processor with configurable concurrency