diff --git a/src/app_controller.py b/src/app_controller.py
index efdf953d..e4bb61f2 100644
--- a/src/app_controller.py
+++ b/src/app_controller.py
@@ -3983,6 +3983,14 @@ class AppController:
    if hasattr(app, 'active_track'):        app.active_track   = None
    if hasattr(app, 'proposed_tracks'):     app.proposed_tracks = []
    if hasattr(app, 'mma_streams'):         app.mma_streams.clear()
+   # Clear App-side tracks list too. The live_gui subprocess is shared
+   # across many live_gui tests in batched xdist mode; without this,
+   # a test that runs after `test_mma_concurrent_tracks_sim` (which
+   # creates Track A and Track B) would see those leftovers in
+   # `tracks_list[0]` and load a track whose on-disk state file may not
+   # exist, producing `'dict' object has no attribute 'id'` /
+   # `bool(active_tickets)` failures (test_visual_sim_mma_v2 Stage 6).
+   if hasattr(app, 'tracks'):             app.tracks = []
 
  def _handle_compress_discussion(self) -> None:
   def worker() -> "Result[None]":
@@ -5089,11 +5097,43 @@ class AppController:
      tickets.append(Ticket(**t))
     else:
      tickets.append(t)
+   # Defensive: state.metadata may be a dict (from EMPTY_TRACK_STATE or a
+   # legacy on-disk state.toml where metadata was serialized as a raw dict).
+   # TrackMetadata.from_dict accepts either, but `state.metadata.id` /
+   # `state.metadata.name` only work on TrackMetadata instances. Normalize
+   # to TrackMetadata first. If the state has no real metadata (e.g.
+   # EMPTY_TRACK_STATE returned because the on-disk state.toml is missing
+   # for a track that's still listed in `self.tracks`), fall back to
+   # the track_id passed to the click handler so `active_track.id`
+   # matches what the test/UI was asking for.
+   meta = state.metadata
+   if not isinstance(meta, TrackMetadata):
+    if isinstance(meta, dict):
+     meta = TrackMetadata.from_dict(meta)
+    else:
+     meta = TrackMetadata(id=track_id, name=track_id)
+   track_id_final = meta.id or track_id
+   track_name_final = meta.name or meta.id or track_id
    self.active_track = Track(
-    id=state.metadata.id,
-    description=state.metadata.name,
+    id=track_id_final,
+    description=track_name_final,
     tickets=tickets
    )
+   # Sync App-side state too. Without this, /api/gui/mma_status (which
+   # reads `app.active_tickets` via `_get_app_attr`) returns the stale
+   # App-side list and `bool(s.get('active_tickets'))` is False, breaking
+   # any test that polls for active_tickets after load (e.g.
+   # test_visual_sim_mma_v2 Stage 6). The controller's `self.active_tickets`
+   # is cleared by `_load_active_tickets` (see below) and the test wants
+   # the freshly-loaded track's tickets visible in `app.active_tickets`.
+   # Also sync `app.active_track` and `app.active_tier` so the endpoint
+   # (which checks App first via `_get_app_attr`) returns the freshly-
+   # loaded track, not a stale None or the previous test's track.
+   if hasattr(self, '_app') and self._app is not None:
+    self._app.active_track = self.active_track
+    if tickets:
+     self._app.active_tickets = tickets
+    self._app.active_tier = f"Tier 2 (Tech Lead): {track_name_final}"
    # Keep dicts for UI table
    self._load_active_tickets()
    # Load track-scoped history
@@ -5104,7 +5144,7 @@ class AppController:
     else:
      self.disc_entries.clear()
    self._recalculate_session_usage()
-   self.ai_status = f"Loaded track: {state.metadata.name}"
+   self.ai_status = f"Loaded track: {track_name_final}"
    return OK
   except (OSError, IOError, ValueError, TypeError, KeyError, AttributeError, tomllib.TOMLDecodeError) as e:
    return Result(data=None, errors=[ErrorInfo(
diff --git a/tests/test_visual_sim_mma_v2.py b/tests/test_visual_sim_mma_v2.py
index 66b109d3..a843acc5 100644
--- a/tests/test_visual_sim_mma_v2.py
+++ b/tests/test_visual_sim_mma_v2.py
@@ -64,6 +64,19 @@ def test_mma_complete_lifecycle(live_gui) -> None:
  client = api_hook_client.ApiHookClient()
  assert client.wait_for_server(timeout=15), "Hook server did not start"
 
+ # Clear any stale state from prior live_gui tests in this batched
+ # subprocess. Without btn_reset, leftover tracks (created by earlier
+ # tests like test_mma_concurrent_tracks_sim / test_visual_mma) sit in
+ # `app.tracks` and become `tracks_list[0]`. The test's `target_track =
+ # next(..., tracks_list[0])` then loads a leftover track whose on-disk
+ # state file does not exist, so `_cb_load_track_result` falls back to
+ # EMPTY_TRACK_STATE → `state.tasks == []` → `bool(active_tickets)` is
+ # False → Stage 6 polls fail. btn_reset clears `app.tracks` / `app.active_tickets`
+ # / `app.active_track` so `tracks_list` reflects only tracks accepted
+ # in this test's plan_epic + accept_tracks batch.
+ client.click("btn_reset")
+ time.sleep(2)
+
  # ------------------------------------------------------------------
  # Stage 1: Provider setup
  # ------------------------------------------------------------------