diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ff3a805bf69..0c5bfcdc420 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -128,6 +128,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Agents/Compaction safeguard structure hardening: require exact fallback summary headings, sanitize untrusted compaction instruction text before prompt embedding, and keep structured sections when preserving all turns. (#25555) thanks @rodrigouroz.
 - Gateway/status self version reporting: make Gateway self version in `openclaw status` prefer runtime `VERSION` (while preserving explicit `OPENCLAW_VERSION` override), preventing stale post-upgrade app version output. (#32655) thanks @liuxiaopai-ai.
 - Memory/QMD index isolation: set `QMD_CONFIG_DIR` alongside `XDG_CONFIG_HOME` so QMD config state stays per-agent despite upstream XDG handling bugs, preventing cross-agent collection indexing and excess disk/CPU usage. (#27028) thanks @HenryLoenwind.
+- Memory/QMD collection safety: stop destructive collection rebinds when QMD `collection list` only reports names without path metadata, preventing `memory search` from dropping existing collections if re-add fails. (#36870) Thanks @Adnannnnnnna.
 - Memory/local embedding initialization hardening: add regression coverage for transient initialization retry and mixed `embedQuery` + `embedBatch` concurrent startup to lock single-flight initialization behavior. (#15639) thanks @SubtleSpark.
 - CLI/Coding-agent reliability: switch default `claude-cli` non-interactive args to `--permission-mode bypassPermissions`, auto-normalize legacy `--dangerously-skip-permissions` backend overrides to the modern permission-mode form, align coding-agent + live-test docs with the non-PTY Claude path, and emit session system-event heartbeat notices when CLI watchdog no-output timeouts terminate runs. Related to #28261. Landed from contributor PRs #28610 and #31149. Thanks @niceysam, @cryptomaltese and @vincentkoc.
 - ACP/ACPX session bootstrap: retry with `sessions new` when `sessions ensure` returns no session identifiers so ACP spawns avoid `NO_SESSION`/`ACP_TURN_FAILED` failures on affected agents. Related to #28786. Landed from contributor PR #31338. Thanks @Sid-Qin and @vincentkoc.
diff --git a/src/memory/qmd-manager.test.ts b/src/memory/qmd-manager.test.ts
index 0532dd6099e..43f7c55be50 100644
--- a/src/memory/qmd-manager.test.ts
+++ b/src/memory/qmd-manager.test.ts
@@ -369,7 +369,7 @@ describe("QmdMemoryManager", () => {
     expect(addSessions?.[2]).toBe(path.join(stateDir, "agents", devAgentId, "qmd", "sessions"));
   });
 
-  it("rebinds managed collections when qmd only reports collection names", async () => {
+  it("avoids destructive rebind when qmd only reports collection names", async () => {
     cfg = {
       ...cfg,
       memory: {
@@ -401,25 +401,11 @@ describe("QmdMemoryManager", () => {
     await manager.close();
 
     const commands = spawnMock.mock.calls.map((call: unknown[]) => call[1] as string[]);
-    const removeSessions = commands.find(
-      (args) =>
-        args[0] === "collection" && args[1] === "remove" && args[2] === sessionCollectionName,
-    );
-    expect(removeSessions).toBeDefined();
-    const removeWorkspace = commands.find(
-      (args) =>
-        args[0] === "collection" && args[1] === "remove" && args[2] === `workspace-${agentId}`,
-    );
-    expect(removeWorkspace).toBeDefined();
+    const removeCalls = commands.filter((args) => args[0] === "collection" && args[1] === "remove");
+    expect(removeCalls).toHaveLength(0);
 
-    const addSessions = commands.find((args) => {
-      if (args[0] !== "collection" || args[1] !== "add") {
-        return false;
-      }
-      const nameIdx = args.indexOf("--name");
-      return nameIdx >= 0 && args[nameIdx + 1] === sessionCollectionName;
-    });
-    expect(addSessions).toBeDefined();
+    const addCalls = commands.filter((args) => args[0] === "collection" && args[1] === "add");
+    expect(addCalls).toHaveLength(0);
   });
 
   it("migrates unscoped legacy collections before adding scoped names", async () => {
diff --git a/src/memory/qmd-manager.ts b/src/memory/qmd-manager.ts
index 789b88f6f6c..454cad6833a 100644
--- a/src/memory/qmd-manager.ts
+++ b/src/memory/qmd-manager.ts
@@ -568,8 +568,9 @@ export class QmdMemoryManager implements MemorySearchManager {
   private shouldRebindCollection(collection: ManagedCollection, listed: ListedCollection): boolean {
     if (!listed.path) {
       // Older qmd versions may only return names from `collection list --json`.
-      // Rebind managed collections so stale path bindings cannot survive upgrades.
-      return true;
+      // Do not perform destructive rebinds when metadata is incomplete: remove+add
+      // can permanently drop collections if add fails (for example on timeout).
+      return false;
     }
     if (!this.pathsMatch(listed.path, collection.path)) {
       return true;