diff --git a/surfsense_backend/tests/integration/indexing_pipeline/test_mark_connector_documents_failed.py b/surfsense_backend/tests/integration/indexing_pipeline/test_mark_connector_documents_failed.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9e3feee1e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/surfsense_backend/tests/integration/indexing_pipeline/test_mark_connector_documents_failed.py
@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+"""Integration tests for mark_connector_documents_failed.
+
+Covers the ETL-failure recovery path: a connector placeholder must move out of
+``pending``/``processing`` into ``failed`` so it stays deletable, while a
+``ready`` document is never clobbered.
+"""
+
+import hashlib
+
+import pytest
+from sqlalchemy import select
+
+from app.db import Document, DocumentStatus, DocumentType
+from app.indexing_pipeline.document_hashing import compute_identifier_hash
+from app.tasks.connector_indexers.base import mark_connector_documents_failed
+
+pytestmark = pytest.mark.integration
+
+
+async def _make_doc(
+    db_session,
+    *,
+    search_space_id: int,
+    connector_id: int,
+    user_id: str,
+    file_id: str,
+    status: dict,
+) -> Document:
+    uid_hash = compute_identifier_hash(
+        DocumentType.GOOGLE_DRIVE_FILE.value, file_id, search_space_id
+    )
+    doc = Document(
+        title=f"{file_id}.pdf",
+        document_type=DocumentType.GOOGLE_DRIVE_FILE,
+        content="Pending...",
+        content_hash=hashlib.sha256(f"placeholder:{uid_hash}".encode()).hexdigest(),
+        unique_identifier_hash=uid_hash,
+        document_metadata={"google_drive_file_id": file_id},
+        search_space_id=search_space_id,
+        connector_id=connector_id,
+        created_by_id=user_id,
+        status=status,
+    )
+    db_session.add(doc)
+    await db_session.flush()
+    return doc
+
+
+async def test_pending_placeholder_marked_failed(
+    db_session, db_search_space, db_connector, db_user
+):
+    doc = await _make_doc(
+        db_session,
+        search_space_id=db_search_space.id,
+        connector_id=db_connector.id,
+        user_id=str(db_user.id),
+        file_id="file-pending",
+        status=DocumentStatus.pending(),
+    )
+
+    marked = await mark_connector_documents_failed(
+        db_session,
+        document_type=DocumentType.GOOGLE_DRIVE_FILE,
+        search_space_id=db_search_space.id,
+        failures=[("file-pending", "Download/ETL failed: boom")],
+    )
+
+    assert marked == 1
+    await db_session.refresh(doc)
+    assert DocumentStatus.is_state(doc.status, DocumentStatus.FAILED)
+    assert doc.status.get("reason") == "Download/ETL failed: boom"
+
+
+async def test_ready_document_not_clobbered(
+    db_session, db_search_space, db_connector, db_user
+):
+    doc = await _make_doc(
+        db_session,
+        search_space_id=db_search_space.id,
+        connector_id=db_connector.id,
+        user_id=str(db_user.id),
+        file_id="file-ready",
+        status=DocumentStatus.ready(),
+    )
+
+    marked = await mark_connector_documents_failed(
+        db_session,
+        document_type=DocumentType.GOOGLE_DRIVE_FILE,
+        search_space_id=db_search_space.id,
+        failures=[("file-ready", "should be ignored")],
+    )
+
+    assert marked == 0
+    await db_session.refresh(doc)
+    assert DocumentStatus.is_state(doc.status, DocumentStatus.READY)
+
+
+async def test_missing_document_is_noop(db_session, db_search_space):
+    marked = await mark_connector_documents_failed(
+        db_session,
+        document_type=DocumentType.GOOGLE_DRIVE_FILE,
+        search_space_id=db_search_space.id,
+        failures=[("does-not-exist", "reason")],
+    )
+
+    assert marked == 0
+    result = await db_session.execute(
+        select(Document).filter(Document.search_space_id == db_search_space.id)
+    )
+    assert result.scalars().first() is None