diff --git a/internal/capture/store/outbox.go b/internal/capture/store/outbox.go
index f4943dd..d9fcc6b 100644
--- a/internal/capture/store/outbox.go
+++ b/internal/capture/store/outbox.go
@@ -242,10 +242,19 @@ func (s *Store) SetDrainState(ctx context.Context, state string, now time.Time)
 }
 
 // OutboxCounts counts rows by sync_state across the uploaded tables.
+//
+// Pending leaves out rows of aborted turns, which Pending never reads: counting
+// them reported work as waiting to sync that never would, so the pending count
+// could not reach zero.
 func (s *Store) OutboxCounts(ctx context.Context) (map[string]int64, error) {
 	out := map[string]int64{}
 	for _, t := range syncTables {
-		rows, err := s.db.QueryContext(ctx, `SELECT sync_state, COUNT(*) FROM `+t+` GROUP BY sync_state`) //nolint:gosec // G202: fixed table list
+		q := `SELECT sync_state, COUNT(*) FROM ` + t + ` x GROUP BY sync_state` //nolint:gosec // G202: fixed table list
+		if t == "agent_message" || t == "tool_call" {
+			q = `SELECT sync_state, COUNT(*) FROM ` + t + ` x WHERE sync_state != 'pending'` + //nolint:gosec // G202: fixed table list
+				` OR (1` + notAborted + `) GROUP BY sync_state`
+		}
+		rows, err := s.db.QueryContext(ctx, q)
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
diff --git a/internal/capture/sync/sync_test.go b/internal/capture/sync/sync_test.go
index 99fac8f..4bcab4a 100644
--- a/internal/capture/sync/sync_test.go
+++ b/internal/capture/sync/sync_test.go
@@ -172,6 +172,25 @@ func TestArtifactsExactShape(t *testing.T) {
 
 func itoa(n int64) string { b, _ := json.Marshal(n); return string(b) }
 
+func TestAbortedTurnRowsAreNotCountedAsPending(t *testing.T) {
+	st, sid := cloudStore(t)
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	// The desktop marks a turn aborted when the process died inside it.
+	if _, err := st.DB().ExecContext(ctx, `UPDATE turn SET state = 'aborted' WHERE session_id = ?`, sid); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	o, err := st.Pending(ctx, 10)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if got, want := counts(t, st)[store.SyncPending], int64(o.Len()); got != want {
+		t.Fatalf("pending count %d, outbox holds %d", got, want)
+	}
+	if o.Len() != 2 {
+		t.Fatalf("outbox holds %d rows, want the session and the checkpoint", o.Len())
+	}
+}
+
 func TestHashFormulasNullsAreEmpty(t *testing.T) {
 	r := store.OutSession{ID: "as-1", TokenTotals: "{}"}
 	if SessionHash(r) != hashOf("as-1::::{}") {