diff --git a/app/src/main/java/com/bitchat/android/model/BitchatFilePacket.kt b/app/src/main/java/com/bitchat/android/model/BitchatFilePacket.kt
index 710d72b1f..eaa38e7f9 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/com/bitchat/android/model/BitchatFilePacket.kt
+++ b/app/src/main/java/com/bitchat/android/model/BitchatFilePacket.kt
@@ -7,12 +7,17 @@ import java.nio.ByteOrder
  * BitchatFilePacket: TLV-encoded file transfer payload for BLE mesh.
  * TLVs:
  *  - 0x01: filename (UTF-8)
- *  - 0x02: file size (8 bytes, UInt64)
+ *  - 0x02: file size (4 bytes, UInt32)
  *  - 0x03: mime type (UTF-8)
- *  - 0x04: content (bytes) — may appear multiple times for large files
+ *  - 0x04: content (bytes)
  *
- * Length field for TLV is 2 bytes (UInt16, big-endian) for all TLVs.
- * For large files, CONTENT is chunked into multiple TLVs of up to 65535 bytes each.
+ * Length fields are 2 bytes (UInt16, big-endian), except CONTENT, which uses 4 bytes so a
+ * payload can exceed 64 KiB without TLV-level chunking. This matches `docs/file_transfer.md`;
+ * the previous text here described neither what `encode` writes nor what `decode` reads.
+ *
+ * v2 writes exactly one CONTENT TLV. `decode` still accepts several and concatenates them in
+ * order as defensive tolerance for legacy senders, but the chunk count is the sender's to
+ * choose, so that reassembly must stay linear in the payload rather than in chunks x bytes.
  *
  * Unknown TLV types are SKIPPED, not rejected: the tag list above is a floor,
  * not a ceiling, and a decoder that bails on the first tag it does not know
@@ -104,7 +109,9 @@ data class BitchatFilePacket(
                 var name: String? = null
                 var size: Long? = null
                 var mime: String? = null
-                var contentBytes: ByteArray? = null
+                val contentChunks = ArrayList<ByteArray>(1)
+                var contentLength = 0
+                var sawContent = false
                 var skippedUnknownTLVs = 0
                 while (off < data.size) {
                     // Every TLV needs at least a type and a 2-byte length.
@@ -150,10 +157,18 @@ data class BitchatFilePacket(
                         }
                         TLVType.MIME_TYPE -> mime = String(value, Charsets.UTF_8)
                         TLVType.CONTENT -> {
-                            // Expect a single CONTENT TLV
-                            if (contentBytes == null) contentBytes = value else {
-                                // If multiple CONTENT TLVs appear, concatenate for tolerance
-                                contentBytes = (contentBytes!! + value)
+                            // Expect a single CONTENT TLV, but tolerate a split one.
+                            //
+                            // `contentBytes + value` reallocates and copies the whole
+                            // accumulator per chunk, so k chunks totalling N bytes cost
+                            // O(k*N). The chunk count is the sender's to choose — a 6-byte
+                            // TLV carries one content byte — so at the 1 MB BLE reassembly
+                            // ceiling one packet buys ~10^10 byte copies on the mesh handler
+                            // thread. Collect the chunks and join once instead.
+                            sawContent = true
+                            if (value.isNotEmpty()) {
+                                contentChunks.add(value)
+                                contentLength += value.size
                             }
                         }
                     }
@@ -162,7 +177,18 @@ data class BitchatFilePacket(
                     android.util.Log.d("BitchatFilePacket", "⏭️ Skipped $skippedUnknownTLVs unknown TLV(s)")
                 }
                 val n = name ?: return null
-                val c = contentBytes ?: return null
+                if (!sawContent) return null
+                val c = when (contentChunks.size) {
+                    0 -> ByteArray(0)
+                    1 -> contentChunks[0]
+                    else -> ByteArray(contentLength).also { joined ->
+                        var at = 0
+                        for (chunk in contentChunks) {
+                            System.arraycopy(chunk, 0, joined, at, chunk.size)
+                            at += chunk.size
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
                 val s = size ?: c.size.toLong()
                 val m = mime ?: "application/octet-stream"
                 val result = BitchatFilePacket(n, s, m, c)
diff --git a/app/src/test/kotlin/com/bitchat/android/model/BitchatFilePacketContentTest.kt b/app/src/test/kotlin/com/bitchat/android/model/BitchatFilePacketContentTest.kt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bfdd67505
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/src/test/kotlin/com/bitchat/android/model/BitchatFilePacketContentTest.kt
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+package com.bitchat.android.model
+
+import org.junit.Assert.assertArrayEquals
+import org.junit.Assert.assertEquals
+import org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull
+import org.junit.Assert.assertNull
+import org.junit.Assert.assertTrue
+import org.junit.Test
+import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream
+
+/**
+ * A FILE_TRANSFER payload arrives from any verified peer, and the sender chooses how many CONTENT
+ * TLVs it is split into. Reassembly therefore has to be linear in the payload, not in the chunk
+ * count times the payload.
+ */
+class BitchatFilePacketContentTest {
+
+    private fun shortTlv(tag: Int, value: ByteArray): ByteArray =
+        byteArrayOf(
+            tag.toByte(),
+            ((value.size ushr 8) and 0xFF).toByte(),
+            (value.size and 0xFF).toByte()
+        ) + value
+
+    /** CONTENT carries a 4-byte length, unlike the other tags. */
+    private fun contentTlv(value: ByteArray): ByteArray =
+        byteArrayOf(
+            0x04,
+            ((value.size ushr 24) and 0xFF).toByte(),
+            ((value.size ushr 16) and 0xFF).toByte(),
+            ((value.size ushr 8) and 0xFF).toByte(),
+            (value.size and 0xFF).toByte()
+        ) + value
+
+    private fun payload(contentChunks: List<ByteArray>): ByteArray {
+        val out = ByteArrayOutputStream()
+        out.write(shortTlv(0x01, "photo.jpg".toByteArray()))
+        out.write(shortTlv(0x03, "image/jpeg".toByteArray()))
+        contentChunks.forEach { out.write(contentTlv(it)) }
+        return out.toByteArray()
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `a split content tlv is reassembled in order`() {
+        val chunks = listOf("abc".toByteArray(), "de".toByteArray(), "fgh".toByteArray())
+
+        val decoded = BitchatFilePacket.decode(payload(chunks))
+
+        assertNotNull(decoded)
+        assertArrayEquals("abcdefgh".toByteArray(), decoded!!.content)
+        assertEquals("photo.jpg", decoded.fileName)
+        assertEquals("image/jpeg", decoded.mimeType)
+        // No FILE_SIZE TLV, so the size falls back to the reassembled length.
+        assertEquals(8L, decoded.fileSize)
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `a single content tlv round trips through encode`() {
+        val original = BitchatFilePacket(
+            fileName = "note.txt",
+            fileSize = 5L,
+            mimeType = "text/plain",
+            content = "hello".toByteArray()
+        )
+
+        val decoded = BitchatFilePacket.decode(original.encode()!!)
+
+        assertNotNull(decoded)
+        assertArrayEquals(original.content, decoded!!.content)
+        assertEquals(original.fileName, decoded.fileName)
+        assertEquals(original.fileSize, decoded.fileSize)
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `an empty content tlv still decodes to an empty file`() {
+        val decoded = BitchatFilePacket.decode(payload(listOf(ByteArray(0))))
+
+        assertNotNull(decoded)
+        assertEquals(0, decoded!!.content.size)
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `a payload with no content tlv is rejected`() {
+        assertNull(BitchatFilePacket.decode(payload(emptyList())))
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `heavily split content reassembles correctly at scale`() {
+        // A CONTENT TLV costs 5 header bytes, so one content byte per chunk is the sender's
+        // cheapest way to maximise the chunk count. 200k chunks is ~1.2 MB on the wire, the
+        // scale BLE reassembly already lets through.
+        //
+        // No timing assertion here on purpose: a wall-clock threshold wide enough to stay stable
+        // on slow CI is too wide to fail on the quadratic path, so it would only add flake. The
+        // cost was measured directly instead and is recorded in the pull request.
+        val chunkCount = 200_000
+        val data = payload(List(chunkCount) { byteArrayOf(it.toByte()) })
+
+        val decoded = BitchatFilePacket.decode(data)
+
+        assertNotNull(decoded)
+        assertEquals(chunkCount, decoded!!.content.size)
+        assertTrue(
+            "every chunk must land at its own offset",
+            decoded.content.withIndex().all { (i, b) -> b == i.toByte() }
+        )
+    }
+}