diff --git a/HellionChat/Configuration.cs b/HellionChat/Configuration.cs
index 5381ed4..2cc1cda 100755
--- a/HellionChat/Configuration.cs
+++ b/HellionChat/Configuration.cs
@@ -293,11 +293,14 @@ public class Configuration : IPluginConfiguration
         // not destroy open tell conversations. Pinned TempTabs are persistent
         // and come through `other` like regular tabs; unpinned TempTabs are
         // session-only and held from the local state. For persistent tabs
-        // (incl. pinned), capture live MessageList + LastSendUnread by
-        // Identifier and restore them onto the freshly cloned tabs.
+        // (incl. pinned), capture live runtime state by Identifier and restore
+        // it onto the freshly cloned tabs — CurrentChannel is critical because
+        // the user may have switched channel in-game between settings-open
+        // and settings-save, and we'd otherwise overwrite that with the
+        // settings-time snapshot.
         var liveUnpinnedTempTabs = Tabs.Where(TabLifecycleHelpers.IsInUnpinnedPool).ToList();
         var livePersistentSession = Tabs.Where(t => !TabLifecycleHelpers.IsInUnpinnedPool(t))
-            .ToDictionary(t => t.Identifier, t => (t.Messages, t.LastSendUnread));
+            .ToDictionary(t => t.Identifier, t => (t.Messages, t.LastSendUnread, t.CurrentChannel));
 
         Tabs = other
             .Tabs.Where(t => !t.IsTempTab || t.IsPinned)
@@ -308,6 +311,7 @@ public class Configuration : IPluginConfiguration
                 {
                     clone.Messages = live.Messages;
                     clone.LastSendUnread = live.LastSendUnread;
+                    clone.CurrentChannel = live.CurrentChannel;
                 }
                 return clone;
             })
diff --git a/HellionChat/Ui/ChatLogWindow.cs b/HellionChat/Ui/ChatLogWindow.cs
index e67f85c..3d2a502 100644
--- a/HellionChat/Ui/ChatLogWindow.cs
+++ b/HellionChat/Ui/ChatLogWindow.cs
@@ -441,11 +441,24 @@ public sealed class ChatLogWindow : Window
 
     private void TabSwitched(Tab newTab, Tab previousTab)
     {
-        // Use the fixed channel if set by the user, or set it to the current tabs channel if this tab wasn't accessed before
+        // Use the fixed channel if set by the user. Otherwise, if the new tab
+        // has no channel state yet (fresh from JSON, never selected this
+        // session), seed from the previous tab — but deep-clone so we don't
+        // share TellTarget with the previous tab. Without the clone, a later
+        // /tell on the new tab would mutate the pinned tab's TellTarget and
+        // the Party/Linkshell channel would pop back to the pinned tell-mark.
         if (newTab.Channel is not null)
+        {
             newTab.CurrentChannel.Channel = newTab.Channel.Value;
+        }
         else if (newTab.CurrentChannel.Channel is InputChannel.Invalid)
-            newTab.CurrentChannel = previousTab.CurrentChannel;
+        {
+            newTab.CurrentChannel = previousTab.CurrentChannel.Clone();
+            Plugin.LogProxy.Debug(
+                $"[Tab] '{newTab.Name}' seeded channel from '{previousTab.Name}' "
+                    + $"(Channel={newTab.CurrentChannel.Channel}, TellTarget={newTab.CurrentChannel.TellTarget?.ToTargetString() ?? "null"})"
+            );
+        }
 
         SetChannel(newTab.CurrentChannel.Channel);
     }