diff --git a/agent/hooks/task-state.ts b/agent/hooks/task-state.ts
index 0bd6c1e..b17dbfa 100644
--- a/agent/hooks/task-state.ts
+++ b/agent/hooks/task-state.ts
@@ -7,9 +7,10 @@ const update = (event: HookEvent, ctx: { session: { id: string } }) =>
   taskState.update((current) => applyTaskEvent(current, event, ctx.session.id));
 
 const cancel = async (event: HookEvent<"turn.cancelled">, ctx: { session: { id: string } }) => {
-  update(event, ctx);
   await closeBrowserRuntime(ctx.session.id);
+  update(event, ctx);
 };
+
 export default defineHook({
   events: {
     "session.started": update,
diff --git a/server/browser/privacy-lock.ts b/server/browser/privacy-lock.ts
index 1216426..f53ca7d 100644
--- a/server/browser/privacy-lock.ts
+++ b/server/browser/privacy-lock.ts
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ export async function quarantineBrowser(): Promise<void> {
 
 export async function withBrowserPrivacyLock<T>(sessionId: string, operation: () => Promise<T>, database?: Pool, existingBrowser = false): Promise<T> {
   if (!database && isLinkSandbox()) {
+    if (!process.env.LINK_SANDBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN?.trim()) return operation();
     let state = sandboxBrowsers.get(sessionId);
     if (!state && existingBrowser) throw new Error("The sandbox cannot recover a browser from another process. Use human handoff to inspect the existing purchase; do not retry it.");
     if (!state) { state = { tail: Promise.resolve(), quarantined: false }; sandboxBrowsers.set(sessionId, state); }
diff --git a/tests/browser/browser-close.test.ts b/tests/browser/browser-close.test.ts
index 9c5fc93..447b880 100644
--- a/tests/browser/browser-close.test.ts
+++ b/tests/browser/browser-close.test.ts
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import Browserbase from "@browserbasehq/sdk";
 import { BrowserSession } from "../../server/browser/browser-session";
 import type { ConversationState } from "../../server/browser/types";
 import { browserChannelEvents, closeBrowserRuntime, hasBrowserRuntime, runBrowserOperation } from "../../agent/lib/browser-runtime";
+import taskHooks from "../../agent/hooks/task-state";
 import { taskState } from "../../agent/lib/task-state";
 import { ContextContainer, contextStorage } from "../../node_modules/eve/dist/src/context/container.js";
 
@@ -105,4 +106,22 @@ describe("terminal cleanup in a fresh Eve worker", () => {
         await closeBrowserRuntime(id);
       }
     }));
+    
+  it("turn.cancelled releases the persisted browser before clearing its ID", () =>
+    contextStorage.run(new ContextContainer(), async () => {
+      const id = "fresh-worker-cancel";
+      taskState.update((current) => ({
+        ...current,
+        browser: { lifecycle: "active", sessionId: "persisted-browser" },
+      }));
+      release.mockResolvedValue({ status: "COMPLETED" });
+      await taskHooks.events!["turn.cancelled"]!(
+        { type: "turn.cancelled", meta: { id: "evt_cancel" } } as never,
+        { session: { id } } as never,
+      );
+      expect(release).toHaveBeenCalledExactlyOnceWith("persisted-browser", { status: "REQUEST_RELEASE" });
+      expect(taskState.get()).toMatchObject({ status: "canceled", browser: { lifecycle: "closed" } });
+      expect(taskState.get().browser.sessionId).toBeUndefined();
+      expect(hasBrowserRuntime(id)).toBe(false);
+    }));
 });