diff --git a/packages/studio/src/player/components/timelineLayout.test.ts b/packages/studio/src/player/components/timelineLayout.test.ts
index 3642dea95..dde3a5cfc 100644
--- a/packages/studio/src/player/components/timelineLayout.test.ts
+++ b/packages/studio/src/player/components/timelineLayout.test.ts
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import {
   GUTTER,
   TRACKS_LEFT_PAD,
   getTimelineRowTop,
+  getTimelineScrubTime,
   getTimelineRowFromY,
   getTimelineCanvasHeight,
   resolveTimelineAssetDrop,
@@ -105,3 +106,46 @@ describe("track-area breathing pad y-math", () => {
     });
   });
 });
+
+describe("getTimelineScrubTime", () => {
+  const at = (clientX: number, duration = 10) =>
+    getTimelineScrubTime({
+      clientX,
+      viewportLeft: 0,
+      scrollLeft: 0,
+      pixelsPerSecond: 100,
+      duration,
+    });
+  const origin = GUTTER + TRACKS_LEFT_PAD;
+
+  it("maps the content origin to t=0", () => {
+    expect(at(origin)).toBe(0);
+    expect(at(origin + 250)).toBe(2.5);
+  });
+
+  // The bug: a pointer left of the origin used to abort the scrub instead of
+  // clamping, so dragging the playhead to the start only worked if a sample
+  // happened to land in the few px before t=0.
+  it("clamps a pointer left of the origin to 0 instead of dropping the scrub", () => {
+    expect(at(origin - 1)).toBe(0);
+    expect(at(origin - 500)).toBe(0);
+    expect(at(0)).toBe(0);
+  });
+
+  it("clamps past the end to the duration", () => {
+    expect(at(origin + 5000)).toBe(10);
+  });
+
+  it("returns 0 for a degenerate zoom or duration", () => {
+    expect(
+      getTimelineScrubTime({
+        clientX: 500,
+        viewportLeft: 0,
+        scrollLeft: 0,
+        pixelsPerSecond: 0,
+        duration: 10,
+      }),
+    ).toBe(0);
+    expect(at(origin + 250, Number.NaN)).toBe(0);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/studio/src/player/components/timelineLayout.ts b/packages/studio/src/player/components/timelineLayout.ts
index c2326734f..9a1b51108 100644
--- a/packages/studio/src/player/components/timelineLayout.ts
+++ b/packages/studio/src/player/components/timelineLayout.ts
@@ -321,6 +321,29 @@ export function getTimelinePlayheadLeft(time: number, pixelsPerSecond: number):
   );
 }
 
+/**
+ * Inverse of {@link getTimelinePlayheadLeft}: the scrub time under a viewport
+ * clientX. Clamped to [0, duration], NOT rejected — the scrub surface starts
+ * `GUTTER + TRACKS_LEFT_PAD` px right of the viewport edge, so any pointer left
+ * of t=0 maps to a negative offset. Callers used to bail on that instead of
+ * clamping, which made the last 80px of the drag to zero silently do nothing:
+ * the playhead stuck wherever the last in-range sample landed, and only a very
+ * slow drag that happened to sample inside the sliver before the origin reached
+ * 0. Every scrub path shares this so they cannot diverge on the edge again.
+ */
+export function getTimelineScrubTime(input: {
+  clientX: number;
+  viewportLeft: number;
+  scrollLeft: number;
+  pixelsPerSecond: number;
+  duration: number;
+}): number {
+  const { clientX, viewportLeft, scrollLeft, pixelsPerSecond, duration } = input;
+  if (!(pixelsPerSecond > 0) || !Number.isFinite(duration)) return 0;
+  const x = clientX - viewportLeft + scrollLeft - GUTTER - TRACKS_LEFT_PAD;
+  return Math.max(0, Math.min(duration, x / pixelsPerSecond));
+}
+
 export function getTimelineCanvasHeight(trackCount: number): number {
   // RULER_H + top pad + lanes + bottom pad. The old TIMELINE_SCROLL_BUFFER is
   // subsumed by TRACKS_BOTTOM_PAD (which is larger), so the drag-into-void space
diff --git a/packages/studio/src/player/components/useTimelinePlayhead.ts b/packages/studio/src/player/components/useTimelinePlayhead.ts
index 6706c0f7b..f7c3ab6b3 100644
--- a/packages/studio/src/player/components/useTimelinePlayhead.ts
+++ b/packages/studio/src/player/components/useTimelinePlayhead.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import {
   GUTTER,
   TRACKS_LEFT_PAD,
   getTimelinePlayheadLeft,
+  getTimelineScrubTime,
   getTimelineScrollLeftForZoomTransition,
   getTimelineScrollLeftForZoomAnchor,
   shouldAutoScrollTimeline,
@@ -130,9 +131,13 @@ export function useTimelinePlayhead({
       const el = scrollRef.current;
       if (!el || effectiveDuration <= 0) return;
       const rect = el.getBoundingClientRect();
-      const x = clientX - rect.left + el.scrollLeft - GUTTER - TRACKS_LEFT_PAD;
-      if (x < 0) return;
-      const time = Math.max(0, Math.min(effectiveDuration, x / pps));
+      const time = getTimelineScrubTime({
+        clientX,
+        viewportLeft: rect.left,
+        scrollLeft: el.scrollLeft,
+        pixelsPerSecond: pps,
+        duration: effectiveDuration,
+      });
       liveTime.notify(time);
       onSeek?.(time);
     },
diff --git a/packages/studio/src/player/components/useTimelineRangeSelection.ts b/packages/studio/src/player/components/useTimelineRangeSelection.ts
index 1df2a74fe..6edc0ff44 100644
--- a/packages/studio/src/player/components/useTimelineRangeSelection.ts
+++ b/packages/studio/src/player/components/useTimelineRangeSelection.ts
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import {
 } from "./timelineEditing";
 import type { TimelineElement } from "../store/playerStore";
 import { liveTime, usePlayerStore } from "../store/playerStore";
-import { GUTTER, TRACKS_LEFT_PAD } from "./timelineLayout";
+import { GUTTER, TRACKS_LEFT_PAD, getTimelineScrubTime } from "./timelineLayout";
 import {
   computeMarqueeSelection,
   getMarqueeRect,
@@ -286,11 +286,15 @@ export function useTimelineRangeSelection({
       const el = scrollRef.current;
       if (el) {
         const rect = el.getBoundingClientRect();
-        const x = clientX - rect.left + el.scrollLeft - GUTTER - TRACKS_LEFT_PAD;
-        if (x >= 0) {
-          const dur = el.scrollWidth / pps;
-          liveTime.notify(Math.max(0, Math.min(dur, x / pps)));
-        }
+        liveTime.notify(
+          getTimelineScrubTime({
+            clientX,
+            viewportLeft: rect.left,
+            scrollLeft: el.scrollLeft,
+            pixelsPerSecond: pps,
+            duration: el.scrollWidth / pps,
+          }),
+        );
       }
       if (!seekRafRef.current) {
         seekRafRef.current = requestAnimationFrame(() => {