diff --git a/scripts/uninstall.ps1 b/scripts/uninstall.ps1
index 10c71ecb21..604539f662 100644
--- a/scripts/uninstall.ps1
+++ b/scripts/uninstall.ps1
@@ -383,10 +383,15 @@ function Uninstall-UnslothStudio {
         # Native diffusion (stable-diffusion.cpp) for a custom/env-mode Studio installs beside
         # the root at <parent>\stable-diffusion.cpp -- find_sd_cpp_binary resolves it from
         # UNSLOTH_STUDIO_HOME.parent (sd_cpp_engine.py) -- so removing only the root leaves the
-        # build behind. Derive and remove the sibling, guarding the parent path the same way.
+        # build behind. Only remove a sibling Studio installed: <parent> is a user-chosen dir
+        # and "stable-diffusion.cpp" is exactly what a git clone of leejet/stable-diffusion.cpp
+        # produces, so require our owner marker (written by install_sd_cpp_prebuilt) before rm,
+        # and keep any unowned checkout. Guard the derived parent path the same way.
         $customSdCpp = Join-Path (Split-Path -LiteralPath $r -Parent) "stable-diffusion.cpp"
         if (_IsUnsafeRoot $customSdCpp) {
             _Substep "refusing to remove unsafe path: $customSdCpp" "Yellow"
+        } elseif ((Test-Path -LiteralPath $customSdCpp) -and -not (Test-Path -LiteralPath (Join-Path $customSdCpp ".unsloth-studio-owned") -PathType Leaf)) {
+            _Substep "keeping sd.cpp without Studio owner marker: $customSdCpp" "Yellow"
         } else {
             _RemovePath $customSdCpp
         }
diff --git a/scripts/uninstall.sh b/scripts/uninstall.sh
index 4e3e34136b..6bd8e5e2f8 100755
--- a/scripts/uninstall.sh
+++ b/scripts/uninstall.sh
@@ -213,10 +213,16 @@ _custom_studio_roots | while IFS= read -r _custom_root; do
     # Native diffusion (stable-diffusion.cpp) for a custom/env-mode Studio installs beside
     # the root at <parent>/stable-diffusion.cpp -- find_sd_cpp_binary resolves it from
     # UNSLOTH_STUDIO_HOME.parent (sd_cpp_engine.py) -- so removing only the root leaves the
-    # build behind. Derive and remove the sibling, guarding the parent path the same way.
+    # build behind. Only remove a sibling Studio installed: <parent> is a user-chosen dir
+    # and "stable-diffusion.cpp" is exactly what `git clone` of leejet/stable-diffusion.cpp
+    # produces, so require our owner marker (written by install_sd_cpp_prebuilt) before rm,
+    # and keep any unowned checkout. A pre-marker Studio build is left behind, never a user
+    # file deleted. Guard the derived parent path the same way.
     _custom_sd_cpp="$(dirname "$_custom_root")/stable-diffusion.cpp"
     if _is_unsafe_root "$_custom_sd_cpp"; then
         echo "  refusing to remove unsafe path: $_custom_sd_cpp" >&2
+    elif [ -e "$_custom_sd_cpp" ] && [ ! -f "$_custom_sd_cpp/.unsloth-studio-owned" ]; then
+        echo "  keeping sd.cpp without Studio owner marker: $_custom_sd_cpp" >&2
     else
         _remove_path "$_custom_sd_cpp"
     fi
diff --git a/studio/backend/core/inference/video.py b/studio/backend/core/inference/video.py
index 3d1e6e88d4..692a9d22a0 100644
--- a/studio/backend/core/inference/video.py
+++ b/studio/backend/core/inference/video.py
@@ -448,6 +448,13 @@ class VideoBackend:
                     raise ValueError(str(exc)) from exc
             elif repo_id.startswith(("/", "~", "./", "../")) and not root.is_file():
                 raise ValueError(f"Local model path '{repo_id}' does not exist.")
+        # A local pipeline pick must be a real diffusers directory (model_index.json), or it
+        # would only fail deep in from_pretrained AFTER the route evicted the resident model.
+        # Mirrors the image loader's local-pipeline shape check in diffusion.validate_load_request.
+        if kind == "pipeline":
+            root = Path(repo_id).expanduser()
+            if root.is_dir() and not (root / "model_index.json").is_file():
+                raise ValueError(f"Local pipeline directory has no model_index.json: {repo_id}")
         # Reject a malformed transformer_quant scheme cheaply, before the GPU handoff
         # (normalize_transformer_quant raises ValueError on an unknown scheme). It applies
         # only on pipeline-kind loads (the dense DiT from the base repo); an ignored value
diff --git a/studio/backend/routes/models.py b/studio/backend/routes/models.py
index bd1af06801..005e3f7120 100644
--- a/studio/backend/routes/models.py
+++ b/studio/backend/routes/models.py
@@ -3270,6 +3270,19 @@ def _local_model_task(model: "LocalModelInfo") -> Optional[str]:
             pass
         return None
     if _local_is_diffusers(model):
+        # A local diffusers pipeline can be a VIDEO family (LTX / Wan / Hunyuan), not just an
+        # image one. Tag it text-to-video so it surfaces in the Video On-Device picker instead
+        # of the Images picker (where the image loader would reject it), mirroring the
+        # cached-repo _cached_repo_task. Gated on _local_is_diffusers, so only a real loadable
+        # pipeline dir (model_index.json) or a name-matched checkpoint reaches this check.
+        try:
+            from core.inference.video import _is_trusted_video_repo
+            from core.inference.video_families import detect_video_family
+            for needle in (model.model_id, model.display_name, model.id):
+                if needle and detect_video_family(needle) is not None and _is_trusted_video_repo(path):
+                    return _VIDEO_GEN_TASK
+        except Exception:
+            pass
         return "text-to-image"
     return None
 
diff --git a/studio/backend/tests/test_local_model_format.py b/studio/backend/tests/test_local_model_format.py
index f9184774d6..f466ab99a5 100644
--- a/studio/backend/tests/test_local_model_format.py
+++ b/studio/backend/tests/test_local_model_format.py
@@ -165,3 +165,25 @@ def test_local_task_none_for_plain_llm(tmp_path):
     _touch(d / "config.json")
     _touch(d / "model.safetensors")
     assert models_route._local_model_task(_local(d, model_id = "meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B")) is None
+
+
+def test_local_task_tags_video_pipeline_dir(tmp_path):
+    # A local diffusers pipeline whose id resolves to a VIDEO family (LTX / Wan / Hunyuan)
+    # must be tagged text-to-video so it surfaces in the Video On-Device picker, mirroring the
+    # cached-repo path -- not text-to-image, where the image loader would reject it.
+    d = tmp_path / "wan-local"
+    _touch(d / "model_index.json")
+    _touch(d / "transformer" / "diffusion_pytorch_model.safetensors")
+    assert (
+        models_route._local_model_task(_local(d, model_id = "Wan-AI/Wan2.2-TI2V-5B-Diffusers"))
+        == models_route._VIDEO_GEN_TASK
+    )
+
+
+def test_local_task_video_name_without_pipeline_not_surfaced(tmp_path):
+    # A dir whose name matches a video family but which is NOT a diffusers pipeline (no
+    # model_index.json) is not a loadable pipeline, so it must stay untagged -- never surfaced
+    # to the Video picker, so it can never trigger a pipeline load that evicts then fails.
+    d = tmp_path / "ltx-loose"
+    _touch(d / "ltx-2.safetensors")  # loose weights, no model_index.json
+    assert models_route._local_model_task(_local(d, model_id = "Lightricks/LTX-2")) is None
diff --git a/studio/backend/tests/test_sd_cpp_install.py b/studio/backend/tests/test_sd_cpp_install.py
index cc5051e784..07d52a0b02 100644
--- a/studio/backend/tests/test_sd_cpp_install.py
+++ b/studio/backend/tests/test_sd_cpp_install.py
@@ -257,6 +257,9 @@ def test_install_downloads_verifies_extracts(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
     sd_cli = install(install_dir = tmp_path)
     assert sd_cli.name == "sd-cli" and sd_cli.is_file()
     assert not (tmp_path / name).exists()  # archive cleaned up after extract
+    # Ownership marker lets the uninstaller delete a Studio-installed sd.cpp beside a custom
+    # root while keeping a user's own stable-diffusion.cpp checkout.
+    assert (tmp_path / ".unsloth-studio-owned").is_file()
 
 
 def test_install_sha256_mismatch_raises_and_cleans_up(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
diff --git a/studio/backend/tests/test_video_backend.py b/studio/backend/tests/test_video_backend.py
index 3e15984061..68a23b3ce9 100644
--- a/studio/backend/tests/test_video_backend.py
+++ b/studio/backend/tests/test_video_backend.py
@@ -462,6 +462,22 @@ def test_validate_gates_base_repo_and_local_paths(tmp_path):
         )
 
 
+def test_validate_rejects_local_pipeline_without_model_index(tmp_path):
+    backend = VideoBackend()
+    d = tmp_path / "ltx-local"
+    (d / "transformer").mkdir(parents = True)
+    (d / "transformer" / "diffusion_pytorch_model.safetensors").write_bytes(b"x")
+    # A local dir resolved to a video family but missing model_index.json is not a loadable
+    # diffusers pipeline; it must fail preflight BEFORE the route evicts the resident model,
+    # mirroring the image loader's local-pipeline shape check.
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match = "model_index.json"):
+        backend.validate_load_request(str(d), family_override = "ltx-2")
+    # With a model_index.json it is a valid local pipeline pick and passes preflight.
+    (d / "model_index.json").write_text("{}")
+    fam = backend.validate_load_request(str(d), family_override = "ltx-2")
+    assert fam.name == "ltx-2"
+
+
 def test_validate_rejects_gguf_repo_as_pipeline():
     backend = VideoBackend()
     # A -GGUF repo with no quant filename resolves to the pipeline kind and would
diff --git a/studio/install_sd_cpp_prebuilt.py b/studio/install_sd_cpp_prebuilt.py
index 52229d5f60..8533fac871 100644
--- a/studio/install_sd_cpp_prebuilt.py
+++ b/studio/install_sd_cpp_prebuilt.py
@@ -442,6 +442,13 @@ def install(
         _make_executable(sd_server)
     if sd_server is not None:
         print(f"installed sd-server -> {sd_server}", flush = True)
+    # Ownership marker (the same one setup.sh/_is_studio_root use, and setup.ps1 writes into
+    # the Node sibling dir) so the uninstaller can tell a Studio-installed sd.cpp from a user's
+    # own stable-diffusion.cpp checkout beside a custom Studio root, and delete only ours.
+    try:
+        (target / ".unsloth-studio-owned").touch()
+    except OSError:
+        pass
     return sd_cli
 
 
diff --git a/tests/sh/test_uninstall_sd_cpp_custom_root.sh b/tests/sh/test_uninstall_sd_cpp_custom_root.sh
index 202b046ecf..0c55f9f53a 100755
--- a/tests/sh/test_uninstall_sd_cpp_custom_root.sh
+++ b/tests/sh/test_uninstall_sd_cpp_custom_root.sh
@@ -39,13 +39,15 @@ sed -n '/^_custom_studio_roots | while IFS= read -r _custom_root; do/,/^done/p'
 . "$HELPERS_FILE"
 
 # make_studio <root> : a valid custom Studio root (share/studio.conf owner marker) plus its
-# sibling <parent>/stable-diffusion.cpp build, each with a file so removal is observable.
+# sibling <parent>/stable-diffusion.cpp build carrying the Studio owner marker, each with a
+# file so removal is observable.
 make_studio() {
     mkdir -p "$1/share"
     : > "$1/share/studio.conf"
     _sib="$(dirname "$1")/stable-diffusion.cpp"
     mkdir -p "$_sib"
     : > "$_sib/sd-cli"
+    : > "$_sib/.unsloth-studio-owned"  # written by install_sd_cpp_prebuilt on a real install
 }
 run_loop() {
     # shellcheck disable=SC1090
@@ -73,7 +75,20 @@ assert_nodir "shared-parent root B removed"               "$p2/studioB"
 assert_nodir "shared-parent root C removed"               "$p2/studioC"
 assert_nodir "shared sibling stable-diffusion.cpp removed" "$p2/stable-diffusion.cpp"
 
-# 3. Default-mode sd.cpp (a bare ~/.unsloth/stable-diffusion.cpp with no custom root) is NOT
+# 3. A sibling stable-diffusion.cpp WITHOUT the Studio owner marker (a user's own checkout,
+#    even a built one, beside a custom root -- or one left when UNSLOTH_SD_CPP_PATH points
+#    Studio elsewhere) is KEPT, though the Studio root itself is still removed.
+p3="$_TMP_ROOT/inst3"
+mkdir -p "$p3/studioD/share"; : > "$p3/studioD/share/studio.conf"
+mkdir -p "$p3/stable-diffusion.cpp/build/bin"
+: > "$p3/stable-diffusion.cpp/build/bin/sd-cli"  # user's own build, no owner marker
+: > "$p3/stable-diffusion.cpp/main.cpp"
+_custom_studio_roots() { printf '%s\n' "$p3/studioD"; }
+run_loop
+assert_nodir "unowned-sibling: custom root still removed" "$p3/studioD"
+assert_dir   "unowned sibling stable-diffusion.cpp kept"   "$p3/stable-diffusion.cpp"
+
+# 4. Default-mode sd.cpp (a bare ~/.unsloth/stable-diffusion.cpp with no custom root) is NOT
 #    touched by the custom-root loop -- it is removed by the separate default-mode line.
 mkdir -p "$HOME/.unsloth/stable-diffusion.cpp"
 _custom_studio_roots() { printf '%s\n' "$p1/studioA"; }  # a now-removed root -> guard skips