diff --git a/volume-utils.sh b/volume-utils.sh
index 43105b6c..b4f73202 100755
--- a/volume-utils.sh
+++ b/volume-utils.sh
@@ -7,6 +7,17 @@
 # zstd headers from purged/missing volumes must not win sort|tail newest selection).
 MIN_RESTORABLE_BACKUP_BYTES=$((1024 * 1024))
 
+# Config volumes hold a handful of small files: a legitimate config archive can sit
+# far below the 1MB data floor (cronos: 68KB) while a purged-volume stub is a bare
+# zstd header (<4KB). A flat 1MB floor made every node with a _config volume in its
+# registry entry report "Restorable: 0" despite healthy multi-GB data backups.
+min_restorable_bytes_for() {
+  case "$(basename "$1")" in
+    *_config-*.tar.zst) echo 4096 ;;
+    *) echo "$MIN_RESTORABLE_BACKUP_BYTES" ;;
+  esac
+}
+
 RPC_ENV_FILE="/root/rpc/.env"
 
 backup_archive_size_bytes() {
@@ -19,7 +30,7 @@ is_restorable_backup_archive() {
   local size
   [[ -f "$file" ]] || return 1
   size=$(backup_archive_size_bytes "$file")
-  [[ "$size" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]] && (( size >= MIN_RESTORABLE_BACKUP_BYTES ))
+  [[ "$size" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]] && (( size >= $(min_restorable_bytes_for "$file") ))
 }
 
 # Pick the lexicographically newest backup that is not near-empty (<1MB). Prints one
@@ -42,7 +53,7 @@ select_newest_local_backup() {
 
   for f in "${files[@]}"; do
     size=$(backup_archive_size_bytes "$f")
-    if [[ ! "$size" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]] || (( size < MIN_RESTORABLE_BACKUP_BYTES )); then
+    if [[ ! "$size" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]] || (( size < $(min_restorable_bytes_for "$f") )); then
       echo "skip near-empty backup artifact: $(basename "$f") (${size:-0} bytes)" >&2
       continue
     fi
@@ -83,7 +94,7 @@ select_newest_remote_backup_from_list() {
     [[ "$f" == "${volume_name}-"* ]] || continue
     [[ "$f" == *.tar.zst ]] || continue
     size=$(remote_backup_archive_size_bytes "$remote_source" "$f")
-    if [[ -z "$size" || ! "$size" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]] || (( size < MIN_RESTORABLE_BACKUP_BYTES )); then
+    if [[ -z "$size" || ! "$size" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]] || (( size < $(min_restorable_bytes_for "$f") )); then
       echo "skip near-empty backup artifact: $f (${size:-unknown} bytes)" >&2
       continue
     fi