diff --git a/client/src/App/SoundWrapper.jsx b/client/src/App/SoundWrapper.jsx
index 065745de5..904f810b9 100644
--- a/client/src/App/SoundWrapper.jsx
+++ b/client/src/App/SoundWrapper.jsx
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
-// src/app/SoundWrapper.jsx
 import { useEffect } from "react";
 import { useTranslation } from "react-i18next";
 import { useNotification } from "../contexts/Notifications/notificationContext.jsx";
-import newMessageWav from "./../audio/messageTone.wav";
 import { initNewMessageSound, unlockAudio } from "./../utils/soundManager";
 
 export default function SoundWrapper({ children }) {
@@ -11,7 +9,7 @@ export default function SoundWrapper({ children }) {
 
   useEffect(() => {
     // Initialize base audio
-    initNewMessageSound(newMessageWav, 0.7);
+    initNewMessageSound("https://images.imex.online/app/messageTone.wav", 0.7);
 
     // Show a one-time prompt when a play was blocked by autoplay policy
     const onNeedsUnlock = () => {
diff --git a/client/src/audio/messageTone.wav b/client/src/audio/messageTone.wav
deleted file mode 100644
index 4bed79ac1..000000000
Binary files a/client/src/audio/messageTone.wav and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/client/src/components/notification-center/notification-center.container.jsx b/client/src/components/notification-center/notification-center.container.jsx
index d0024c9d3..e534375f6 100644
--- a/client/src/components/notification-center/notification-center.container.jsx
+++ b/client/src/components/notification-center/notification-center.container.jsx
@@ -39,11 +39,15 @@ const NotificationCenterContainer = ({ visible, onClose, bodyshop, unreadCount,
     return showUnreadOnly ? { ...baseWhereClause, read: { _is_null: true } } : baseWhereClause;
   }, [baseWhereClause, showUnreadOnly]);
 
+  // before you call useQuery, compute skip once so you can reuse it
+  const skipQuery = !userAssociationId || !isEmployee;
+
   const {
     data,
     fetchMore,
     loading: queryLoading,
-    refetch
+    refetch,
+    error
   } = useQuery(GET_NOTIFICATIONS, {
     variables: {
       limit: INITIAL_NOTIFICATIONS,
@@ -52,14 +56,26 @@ const NotificationCenterContainer = ({ visible, onClose, bodyshop, unreadCount,
     },
     fetchPolicy: "cache-and-network",
     notifyOnNetworkStatusChange: true,
+    errorPolicy: "all",
     pollInterval: isConnected ? 0 : day.duration(NOTIFICATION_POLL_INTERVAL_SECONDS, "seconds").asMilliseconds(),
-    skip: !userAssociationId || !isEmployee,
-    onError: (err) => {
-      console.error(`Error polling Notifications: ${err?.message || ""}`);
-      setTimeout(() => refetch(), day.duration(2, "seconds").asMilliseconds());
-    }
+    skip: skipQuery
   });
 
+  // Replace onError with a side-effect that reacts to the hook’s `error`
+  useEffect(() => {
+    if (!error || skipQuery) return;
+
+    console.error(`Error polling Notifications: ${error?.message || ""}`);
+
+    const t = setTimeout(() => {
+      // Guard: if component unmounted or query now skipped, do nothing
+      if (!skipQuery) {
+        refetch().catch((e) => console.error("Refetch failed:", e?.message || e));
+      }
+    }, day.duration(2, "seconds").asMilliseconds());
+
+    return () => clearTimeout(t);
+  }, [error, refetch, skipQuery]);
   useEffect(() => {
     const handleClickOutside = (event) => {
       // Prevent open + close behavior from the header