diff --git a/ansible/roles/podman/defaults/main.yml b/ansible/roles/podman/defaults/main.yml
index 77869c9..32c6725 100644
--- a/ansible/roles/podman/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/ansible/roles/podman/defaults/main.yml
@@ -27,6 +27,14 @@ hass_path: "{{ podman_volumes }}/hass"
 partsy_path: "{{ podman_volumes }}/partsy"
 partsy_skudak_path: "{{ podman_volumes }}/partsy-skudak"
 photos_path: "{{ podman_volumes }}/photos"
+# Named rather than hardcoded so the ML service can be stood up beside a broken
+# one without editing tasks. On 2026-08-28 a worker thread wedged in
+# uninterruptible sleep (D state) in exit_mmap, which made the container
+# unremovable -- it survived SIGKILL and `podman rm -f` and kept its name and
+# network alias until the host was rebooted. The reboot cleared it, so this
+# stays on the canonical name; see MACHINE_LEARNING_MODEL_TTL in photos.yml for
+# the change that stops it recurring.
+immich_ml_container: immich-machine-learning
 uptime_kuma_path: "{{ podman_volumes }}/uptime-kuma"
 uptime_kuma_personal_path: "{{ podman_volumes }}/uptime-kuma-personal"
 zomboid_path: "{{ podman_volumes }}/zomboid"
diff --git a/ansible/roles/podman/tasks/containers/home/photos.yml b/ansible/roles/podman/tasks/containers/home/photos.yml
index 127c64f..21dddc5 100644
--- a/ansible/roles/podman/tasks/containers/home/photos.yml
+++ b/ansible/roles/podman/tasks/containers/home/photos.yml
@@ -94,26 +94,35 @@
 
 - import_tasks: podman/podman-check.yml
   vars:
-    container_name: immich-machine-learning
+    container_name: "{{ immich_ml_container }}"
     container_image: "{{ ml_image }}"
 
+# MACHINE_LEARNING_MODEL_TTL=0 keeps the models resident instead of unloading
+# them after 300s idle. The default made every search following an idle gap
+# reload four models (CLIP, buffalo_l detection + recognition, PP-OCRv5) on a
+# CPU-only 4-core box, then tear those mappings down again -- and it is that
+# teardown, in exit_mmap, that wedged a worker thread in uninterruptible sleep
+# on 2026-08-27 and took smart search, face detection and OCR down with it.
+# Costs ~1-2 GB resident to remove the code path entirely.
 - name: create immich-ml container
   become: true
   become_user: "{{ podman_user }}"
   containers.podman.podman_container:
-    name: immich-machine-learning
+    name: "{{ immich_ml_container }}"
     image: "{{ ml_image }}"
     restart_policy: on-failure:3
     log_driver: journald
     network:
       - shared
+    env:
+      MACHINE_LEARNING_MODEL_TTL: "0"
     volumes:
       - "{{ photos_path }}/mlcache:/cache"
 
 - name: create systemd startup job for immich-machine-learning
   include_tasks: podman/systemd-generate.yml
   vars:
-    container_name: immich-machine-learning
+    container_name: "{{ immich_ml_container }}"
 
 - import_tasks: podman/podman-check.yml
   vars:
@@ -186,6 +195,10 @@
       DB_USERNAME: photos
       DB_PASSWORD: "{{ photos_db_pass }}"
       IMMICH_PORT: 8088
+      # Set explicitly rather than relying on immich's default of
+      # http://immich-machine-learning:3003, so the ML container can be renamed
+      # without silently losing search, faces and OCR.
+      IMMICH_MACHINE_LEARNING_URL: "http://{{ immich_ml_container }}:3003"
     volumes:
       - "{{ photos_path }}/storage:/mnt/media/originals"
       - "{{ photos_path }}/immich:/usr/src/app/upload"