diff --git a/web/components/back-button.tsx b/web/components/back-button.tsx
index 6e8cce11..3c75517b 100644
--- a/web/components/back-button.tsx
+++ b/web/components/back-button.tsx
@@ -22,7 +22,10 @@ export function BackButton(props: {className?: string}) {
       type="button"
       onClick={() => router.back()}
       className={clsx(
-        'text-ink-500 hover:text-primary-700 inline-flex items-center gap-1 text-sm transition-all',
+        // `-m-2 p-2` is hit area only: on mobile the label is hidden and the button was the 16px
+        // chevron itself, well under a thumb's worth of target. The negative margin cancels the
+        // padding, so the chevron stays exactly where every caller already positions it.
+        'text-ink-500 hover:text-primary-700 -m-2 inline-flex items-center gap-1 p-2 text-sm transition-all',
         className,
       )}
     >
diff --git a/web/components/profile-form-nav.tsx b/web/components/profile-form-nav.tsx
index c1943d27..a9a49d34 100644
--- a/web/components/profile-form-nav.tsx
+++ b/web/components/profile-form-nav.tsx
@@ -134,31 +134,17 @@ export function ProfileFormNav(props: {className?: string}) {
  * length. The need is greater here than on desktop, since every field stacks and the page runs
  * roughly three times longer; the answer just has to cost one row instead of a screen.
  *
- * It hides while you scroll down and returns when you scroll up. A permanent bar would spend 44px of
- * an already short viewport on something wanted a few times per session, and the bottom edge is
- * already taken by the nav bar and the floating Save button.
+ * It stays pinned for the whole form. It previously hid on scroll down to save 44px of a short
+ * viewport, but a bar that is only there when you scroll the wrong way reads as gone — you cannot
+ * see where you are without scrolling backwards first, which is exactly what the index exists to
+ * avoid.
  */
 export function ProfileFormSectionBar(props: {className?: string}) {
   const {className} = props
   const {sections, activeId, activeIndex, goTo} = useFormSections()
   const [open, setOpen] = useState(false)
-  const [hidden, setHidden] = useState(false)
   const t = useT()
 
-  useEffect(() => {
-    let lastY = window.scrollY
-    const onScroll = () => {
-      const y = window.scrollY
-      // The 8px deadband stops momentum jitter from flickering the bar on and off.
-      if (Math.abs(y - lastY) > 8) {
-        setHidden(y > lastY && y > 160)
-        lastY = y
-      }
-    }
-    window.addEventListener('scroll', onScroll, {passive: true})
-    return () => window.removeEventListener('scroll', onScroll)
-  }, [])
-
   if (sections.length === 0) return null
 
   const active = sections[activeIndex]
@@ -169,8 +155,7 @@ export function ProfileFormSectionBar(props: {className?: string}) {
           status bar in the Capacitor shell; the variable is 0 in a browser, so one rule covers both. */}
       <div
         className={clsx(
-          'bg-canvas-100/95 border-canvas-300 sticky top-[var(--tnh)] z-20 -mx-6 border-b px-6 backdrop-blur transition-transform duration-200',
-          hidden && '-translate-y-full',
+          'bg-canvas-100/95 border-canvas-300 sticky top-[var(--tnh)] z-20 -mx-6 border-b px-6 backdrop-blur',
           className,
         )}
       >
diff --git a/web/components/profile/profile-info.tsx b/web/components/profile/profile-info.tsx
index c3d327fe..e364df60 100644
--- a/web/components/profile/profile-info.tsx
+++ b/web/components/profile/profile-info.tsx
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ export function ProfileInfo(props: {
           Pull it up through the body's safe-area padding and add that inset back as padding, so the
           bar's background fills the status-bar strip while its buttons stay clear of the native nav. */}
       <div
-        className="bg-canvas-50/95 border-canvas-300 sticky top-0 z-20 mb-6 flex items-center border-b px-4 sm:px-9 py-4 -mt-[env(safe-area-inset-top)] pt-[calc(1rem+env(safe-area-inset-top))] backdrop-blur"
+        className="bg-canvas-50/95 border-canvas-300 top-0 z-20 mb-6 flex items-center border-b px-4 sm:px-9 py-4 backdrop-blur"
         style={{
           borderBottomWidth: '1px',
           gap: '10px',
diff --git a/web/pages/profile.tsx b/web/pages/profile.tsx
index 41730ef8..d6fa3602 100644
--- a/web/pages/profile.tsx
+++ b/web/pages/profile.tsx
@@ -112,7 +112,9 @@ function ProfilePageInner(props: {user: User; profile: Profile}) {
         url={`/profile`}
       />
       <Col className="w-full">
-        <BackButton className="ml-2 mb-2 self-start" />
+        {/* `ml-4` rather than `ml-2`: the button carries 2 of hit-area padding, so this is what puts
+            the chevron on the same left edge as the form column's `px-6` below. */}
+        <BackButton className="ml-4 mb-2 self-start" />
         {/* The index sits in the left gutter from `xl` up, where there is room for it beside a form
             capped at 3xl. Below that it is hidden rather than stacked: a list of eighteen links above
             the first field would be a second thing to read before starting. */}
@@ -120,7 +122,7 @@ function ProfilePageInner(props: {user: User; profile: Profile}) {
           <ProfileFormNav className="sticky top-8 hidden h-fit w-52 shrink-0 xl:flex" />
           <Col className={'w-full min-w-0 max-w-3xl'}>
             {/* Same index, one row instead of a column, wherever the rail does not fit. */}
-            <ProfileFormSectionBar className="xl:hidden" />
+            <ProfileFormSectionBar className="mb-4 xl:hidden" />
             <RequiredProfileUserForm
               data={baseUser}
               setData={setBaseUserState}
diff --git a/web/pages/signup.tsx b/web/pages/signup.tsx
index 5bb191c2..48d730c8 100644
--- a/web/pages/signup.tsx
+++ b/web/pages/signup.tsx
@@ -146,7 +146,9 @@ export default function SignupPage() {
         // the same form gets on /profile, with the page's whole right half empty.
         <Col className={'w-full px-6 py-4'}>
           <div className="mx-auto w-full max-w-4xl">
-            <BackButton className="-ml-2 mb-2 self-start" />
+            {/* No negative margin: the chevron lines up with the column's left edge, like every
+                other thing on the page. Pulled out by 2 it hung into the page gutter. */}
+            <BackButton className="mb-2 self-start" />
             {/* The flow had no progress indicator at all: two substantial form steps that looked alike,
               so the only way to learn there were two was to finish the first. The bar is deliberately
               the same component as /onboarding — those three screens lead directly here, and a reader
@@ -158,7 +160,10 @@ export default function SignupPage() {
                 current: step + 1,
                 total: TOTAL_STEPS,
               })}
-              className="mb-7"
+              // Step 2 puts the section bar directly under this. `mb-7` plus the form row's own top
+              // padding left 44px of empty page between the two, which read as the bar belonging to
+              // the form below rather than to the header above it.
+              className={step === 1 ? 'mb-4' : 'mb-7'}
             />
           </div>
           {step === 0 ? (
@@ -175,10 +180,10 @@ export default function SignupPage() {
             // Same index as /profile: this is the same eighteen-section form, and it is longer here
             // because nothing is filled in yet. Hidden below `xl`, where there is no gutter to put it
             // in without pushing a list of links above the first field.
-            <div className={'mx-auto mb-2 flex w-full max-w-6xl gap-10 py-4'}>
+            <div className={'mx-auto mb-2 flex w-full max-w-6xl gap-10 pb-4'}>
               <ProfileFormNav className="sticky top-8 hidden h-fit w-52 shrink-0 xl:flex" />
               <Col className={'w-full min-w-0 max-w-3xl'}>
-                <ProfileFormSectionBar className="xl:hidden" />
+                <ProfileFormSectionBar className="mb-4 xl:hidden" />
                 <OptionalProfileUserForm
                   profile={profileForm}
                   setProfile={setProfileState}