diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index bbe7aa8..750922d 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "real-debrid-downloader",
-  "version": "1.5.84",
+  "version": "1.5.85",
   "description": "Real-Debrid Downloader Desktop (Electron + React + TypeScript)",
   "main": "build/main/main/main.js",
   "author": "Sucukdeluxe",
diff --git a/src/main/debrid.ts b/src/main/debrid.ts
index 3bfc490..3890fc2 100644
--- a/src/main/debrid.ts
+++ b/src/main/debrid.ts
@@ -485,7 +485,57 @@ export async function checkRapidgatorOnline(
     return null;
   }
   const fileId = fileIdMatch[1];
+  const headers = {
+    "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/133.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
+    Accept: "text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8",
+    "Accept-Language": "en-US,en;q=0.9,de;q=0.8"
+  };
 
+  // Fast path: HEAD request (no body download, much faster)
+  for (let attempt = 1; attempt <= REQUEST_RETRIES + 1; attempt += 1) {
+    try {
+      if (signal?.aborted) throw new Error("aborted:debrid");
+
+      const response = await fetch(link, {
+        method: "HEAD",
+        redirect: "follow",
+        headers,
+        signal: withTimeoutSignal(signal, 15000)
+      });
+
+      if (response.status === 404) {
+        return { online: false, fileName: "", fileSize: null };
+      }
+
+      if (response.ok) {
+        const finalUrl = response.url || link;
+        if (!finalUrl.includes(fileId)) {
+          return { online: false, fileName: "", fileSize: null };
+        }
+        // HEAD 200 + URL still contains file ID → online
+        const fileName = filenameFromRapidgatorUrlPath(link);
+        return { online: true, fileName, fileSize: null };
+      }
+
+      // Non-OK, non-404: retry or give up
+      if (shouldRetryStatus(response.status) && attempt <= REQUEST_RETRIES) {
+        await sleepWithSignal(retryDelayForResponse(response, attempt), signal);
+        continue;
+      }
+
+      // HEAD inconclusive — fall through to GET
+      break;
+    } catch (error) {
+      const errorText = compactErrorText(error);
+      if (/aborted/i.test(errorText)) throw error;
+      if (attempt > REQUEST_RETRIES || !isRetryableErrorText(errorText)) {
+        break; // fall through to GET
+      }
+      await sleepWithSignal(retryDelay(attempt), signal);
+    }
+  }
+
+  // Slow path: GET request (downloads HTML, more thorough)
   for (let attempt = 1; attempt <= REQUEST_RETRIES + 1; attempt += 1) {
     try {
       if (signal?.aborted) throw new Error("aborted:debrid");
@@ -493,11 +543,7 @@ export async function checkRapidgatorOnline(
       const response = await fetch(link, {
         method: "GET",
         redirect: "follow",
-        headers: {
-          "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/133.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
-          Accept: "text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8",
-          "Accept-Language": "en-US,en;q=0.9,de;q=0.8"
-        },
+        headers,
         signal: withTimeoutSignal(signal, API_TIMEOUT_MS)
       });
 
diff --git a/src/main/download-manager.ts b/src/main/download-manager.ts
index 58ac44c..8af1baa 100644
--- a/src/main/download-manager.ts
+++ b/src/main/download-manager.ts
@@ -838,6 +838,7 @@ export class DownloadManager extends EventEmitter {
     void this.recoverRetryableItems("startup").catch((err) => logger.warn(`recoverRetryableItems Fehler (startup): ${compactErrorText(err)}`));
     this.recoverPostProcessingOnStartup();
     this.resolveExistingQueuedOpaqueFilenames();
+    this.checkExistingRapidgatorLinks();
     void this.cleanupExistingExtractedArchives().catch((err) => logger.warn(`cleanupExistingExtractedArchives Fehler (constructor): ${compactErrorText(err)}`));
   }
 
@@ -1534,49 +1535,28 @@ export class DownloadManager extends EventEmitter {
       this.emitState();
     }
 
-    const uniqueUrls = [...new Set(itemsToCheck.map(i => i.url))];
-    const concurrency = 4;
-    const queue = [...uniqueUrls];
-    const workers = Array.from({ length: Math.min(concurrency, queue.length) }, async () => {
-      while (queue.length > 0) {
-        const url = queue.shift()!;
-        const result = await checkRapidgatorOnline(url);
-        if (result !== null) checked.set(url, result);
-      }
-    });
-    await Promise.all(workers);
+    // Check links one by one (sequentially) so the user sees dots change progressively
+    const checkedUrls = new Map<string, Awaited<ReturnType<typeof checkRapidgatorOnline>>>();
 
-    if (checked.size === 0) return;
-
-    let changed = false;
     for (const { itemId, url } of itemsToCheck) {
-      const result = checked.get(url);
-      if (!result) continue;
       const item = this.session.items[itemId];
-      if (!item || item.status !== "queued") continue;
+      if (!item) continue;
 
-      if (!result.online) {
-        item.status = "failed";
-        item.fullStatus = "Offline";
-        item.lastError = "Datei nicht gefunden auf Rapidgator";
-        item.onlineStatus = "offline";
-        item.updatedAt = nowMs();
-        changed = true;
-      } else {
-        if (result.fileName && looksLikeOpaqueFilename(item.fileName)) {
-          item.fileName = sanitizeFilename(result.fileName);
-          this.assignItemTargetPath(item, path.join(this.session.packages[item.packageId]?.outputDir || this.settings.outputDir, item.fileName));
-        }
-        item.onlineStatus = "online";
-        item.updatedAt = nowMs();
-        changed = true;
+      // Reuse result if same URL was already checked
+      if (checkedUrls.has(url)) {
+        const cached = checkedUrls.get(url);
+        this.applyRapidgatorCheckResult(item, cached);
+        this.emitState();
+        continue;
       }
-    }
 
-    if (changed) {
-      this.persistSoon();
+      const result = await checkRapidgatorOnline(url);
+      checkedUrls.set(url, result);
+      this.applyRapidgatorCheckResult(item, result);
       this.emitState();
     }
+
+    this.persistSoon();
   }
 
   private resolveExistingQueuedOpaqueFilenames(): void {
@@ -1602,6 +1582,43 @@ export class DownloadManager extends EventEmitter {
     }
   }
 
+  private applyRapidgatorCheckResult(item: DownloadItem, result: Awaited<ReturnType<typeof checkRapidgatorOnline>>): void {
+    if (!result) {
+      if (item.onlineStatus === "checking") {
+        item.onlineStatus = undefined;
+      }
+      return;
+    }
+    if (item.status !== "queued") return;
+
+    if (!result.online) {
+      item.status = "failed";
+      item.fullStatus = "Offline";
+      item.lastError = "Datei nicht gefunden auf Rapidgator";
+      item.onlineStatus = "offline";
+      item.updatedAt = nowMs();
+    } else {
+      if (result.fileName && looksLikeOpaqueFilename(item.fileName)) {
+        item.fileName = sanitizeFilename(result.fileName);
+        this.assignItemTargetPath(item, path.join(this.session.packages[item.packageId]?.outputDir || this.settings.outputDir, item.fileName));
+      }
+      item.onlineStatus = "online";
+      item.updatedAt = nowMs();
+    }
+  }
+
+  private checkExistingRapidgatorLinks(): void {
+    const uncheckedIds: string[] = [];
+    for (const item of Object.values(this.session.items)) {
+      if (item.status !== "queued") continue;
+      if (item.onlineStatus) continue; // already checked
+      uncheckedIds.push(item.id);
+    }
+    if (uncheckedIds.length > 0) {
+      void this.checkRapidgatorLinks(uncheckedIds).catch((err) => logger.warn(`checkRapidgatorLinks Fehler (startup): ${compactErrorText(err)}`));
+    }
+  }
+
   private async cleanupExistingExtractedArchives(): Promise<void> {
     if (this.settings.cleanupMode === "none") {
       return;
@@ -2803,10 +2820,14 @@ export class DownloadManager extends EventEmitter {
       // Clear stale transient status texts from previous session
       if (item.status === "queued") {
         const fs = (item.fullStatus || "").trim();
-        if (fs !== "Wartet" && fs !== "Paket gestoppt") {
+        if (fs !== "Wartet" && fs !== "Paket gestoppt" && fs !== "Online") {
           item.fullStatus = "Wartet";
         }
       }
+      // Reset stale "checking" status from interrupted checks
+      if (item.onlineStatus === "checking") {
+        item.onlineStatus = undefined;
+      }
       if (item.status === "completed") {
         const fs = (item.fullStatus || "").trim();
         if (fs && !isExtractedLabel(fs) && !/^Fertig\b/i.test(fs)) {
diff --git a/src/renderer/styles.css b/src/renderer/styles.css
index ad72eb8..1fcdf40 100644
--- a/src/renderer/styles.css
+++ b/src/renderer/styles.css
@@ -1335,11 +1335,6 @@ td {
 .link-status-dot.checking {
   background: #f59e0b;
   box-shadow: 0 0 4px #f59e0b80;
-  animation: pulse-dot 1s ease-in-out infinite;
-}
-@keyframes pulse-dot {
-  0%, 100% { opacity: 1; }
-  50% { opacity: 0.4; }
 }
 
 .item-remove {