diff --git a/packages/studio/src/components/renders/useRenderQueue.ts b/packages/studio/src/components/renders/useRenderQueue.ts
index d4af7c61c5..44a0775a89 100644
--- a/packages/studio/src/components/renders/useRenderQueue.ts
+++ b/packages/studio/src/components/renders/useRenderQueue.ts
@@ -250,12 +250,19 @@ export function useRenderQueue(projectId: string | null) {
           headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
           body: JSON.stringify(body),
         });
-      } catch {
+      } catch (err) {
+        // The cause used to be discarded. Every failure — a dead server, an
+        // aborted request, a DNS error, a mid-render crash — surfaced as the
+        // same sentence, and this string is what travels into the feedback
+        // report too, so field reports of a render that fails *every time*
+        // still carried nothing to act on. Keep the CLI guidance, name the
+        // cause after it.
+        const cause = err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err);
         const failedJob: RenderJob = {
           id: generateId(),
           status: "failed",
           progress: 0,
-          error: "Could not reach render server. Use `hyperframes render` from the CLI instead.",
+          error: `Could not reach render server: ${cause}. Use \`hyperframes render\` from the CLI instead.`,
           filename: "Export failed",
           createdAt: startTime,
         };
diff --git a/packages/studio/src/components/renders/useRenderQueueTransportError.test.tsx b/packages/studio/src/components/renders/useRenderQueueTransportError.test.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..cb5cb98df5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/studio/src/components/renders/useRenderQueueTransportError.test.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+// @vitest-environment happy-dom
+
+// The render POST's catch used to discard its error, so a dead server, a DNS
+// failure and a mid-render crash all produced one sentence. That string is also
+// what travels into the feedback report, so three field reports — one of them a
+// render that failed EVERY time — arrived with nothing to act on.
+
+import { afterEach, beforeEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
+import { mountRenderQueue } from "./renderQueueTestHarness";
+
+vi.mock("./useFfmpegStatus", async (importOriginal) => ({
+  ...(await importOriginal<typeof import("./useFfmpegStatus")>()),
+  useFfmpegStatus: () => ({ status: { ok: true }, checking: false, recheck: vi.fn() }),
+}));
+vi.mock("../../telemetry/events", () => ({ trackStudioRenderStart: vi.fn() }));
+
+const { useRenderQueue } = await import("./useRenderQueue");
+
+let queue: ReturnType<typeof mountRenderQueue> | null = null;
+
+beforeEach(() => {
+  vi.stubGlobal(
+    "fetch",
+    vi.fn(() => Promise.reject(new TypeError("Failed to fetch"))),
+  );
+});
+
+afterEach(() => {
+  queue?.unmount();
+  queue = null;
+  document.body.innerHTML = "";
+  vi.unstubAllGlobals();
+});
+
+describe("useRenderQueue transport failure", () => {
+  it("names the cause instead of collapsing every failure into one sentence", async () => {
+    queue = mountRenderQueue(useRenderQueue);
+    const { act } = await import("react");
+    await act(async () => {
+      await queue?.api().startRender({});
+    });
+
+    const job = queue.api().jobs.at(-1);
+    expect(job?.status).toBe("failed");
+    expect(job?.error).toContain("Failed to fetch");
+    // The CLI guidance still earns its place; it just no longer stands alone.
+    expect(job?.error).toContain("hyperframes render");
+  });
+});