diff --git a/ErsatzTV.Application/Channels/CreateAutoTunedChannelsHandler.cs b/ErsatzTV.Application/Channels/CreateAutoTunedChannelsHandler.cs
index 6629871db..e523b558a 100644
--- a/ErsatzTV.Application/Channels/CreateAutoTunedChannelsHandler.cs
+++ b/ErsatzTV.Application/Channels/CreateAutoTunedChannelsHandler.cs
@@ -92,7 +92,17 @@ public class CreateAutoTunedChannelsHandler(ISender mediator)
             // Roll back the smart collection we just created so a retry of this
             // axis/value doesn't fail on SmartCollection-name uniqueness. Best-effort;
             // the primary outcome below is still Skipped/Failed regardless of the delete result.
-            await mediator.Send(new DeleteSmartCollection(smartCollection.Id), cancellationToken);
+            // Swallow any exception (not just an Either.Left) so a transient infra failure
+            // during rollback never aborts this channel's outcome or the batch; the
+            // orphaned SmartCollection is an acceptable degraded outcome.
+            try
+            {
+                await mediator.Send(new DeleteSmartCollection(smartCollection.Id), cancellationToken);
+            }
+            catch (Exception)
+            {
+                // intentionally ignored; see comment above
+            }
 
             AutoTuneOutcomeStatus status = error.Value.Contains(NumberTakenError, StringComparison.Ordinal)
                 ? AutoTuneOutcomeStatus.Skipped