diff --git a/src/db.h b/src/db.h
index 40ffeb9..11f9850 100644
--- a/src/db.h
+++ b/src/db.h
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ extern unsigned int nWalletDBUpdated;
 
 void ThreadFlushWalletDB(void* parg);
 bool BackupWallet(const CWallet& wallet, const std::string& strDest);
+bool AutoBackupWallet(const boost::filesystem::path& walletPath);
 
 
 class CDBEnv
diff --git a/src/init.cpp b/src/init.cpp
index a19de55..c4414ca 100644
--- a/src/init.cpp
+++ b/src/init.cpp
@@ -1041,6 +1041,21 @@ bool AppInit2()
     nStart = GetTimeMillis();
     bool fFirstRun = true;
     pwalletMain = new CWallet(strWalletFileName);
+
+    // Auto-backup wallet.dat before loading (protects against corruption during load/flush)
+    {
+        fs::path walletPath = GetDataDir() / strWalletFileName;
+        if (fs::exists(walletPath)) {
+            uintmax_t wsize = fs::file_size(walletPath);
+            printf("Wallet file size: %llu bytes\n", (unsigned long long)wsize);
+            if (wsize < 1024) {
+                strErrors << _("WARNING: wallet.dat is suspiciously small (") << wsize << _(" bytes). It may be corrupt.\n");
+                printf("WARNING: wallet.dat is only %llu bytes - possibly corrupt!\n", (unsigned long long)wsize);
+            }
+            AutoBackupWallet(walletPath);
+        }
+    }
+
     DBErrors nLoadWalletRet = pwalletMain->LoadWallet(fFirstRun);
     if (nLoadWalletRet != DB_LOAD_OK)
     {
diff --git a/src/walletdb.cpp b/src/walletdb.cpp
index afc73b3..1a865eb 100644
--- a/src/walletdb.cpp
+++ b/src/walletdb.cpp
@@ -16,6 +16,40 @@ namespace fs = boost::filesystem;
 static uint64_t nAccountingEntryNumber = 0;
 extern bool fWalletUnlockStakingOnly;
 
+//
+// Auto-backup wallet before flush/rewrite operations.
+// Copies wallet.dat to wallet.dat.auto.bak if the backup is older than the wallet.
+// Returns true if backup was created or already up to date.
+//
+bool AutoBackupWallet(const fs::path& walletPath)
+{
+    fs::path backupPath = walletPath.string() + ".auto.bak";
+    try {
+        // Only back up if wallet exists and is non-trivial (>1KB)
+        if (!fs::exists(walletPath))
+            return true;
+        uintmax_t walletSize = fs::file_size(walletPath);
+        if (walletSize < 1024) {
+            printf("AutoBackupWallet: wallet.dat is only %llu bytes (possibly corrupt), skipping auto-backup\n",
+                   (unsigned long long)walletSize);
+            return false;
+        }
+        // Skip if backup exists and is same size (already backed up this version)
+        if (fs::exists(backupPath)) {
+            uintmax_t backupSize = fs::file_size(backupPath);
+            if (backupSize == walletSize)
+                return true;
+        }
+        fs::copy_file(walletPath, backupPath, fs::copy_options::overwrite_existing);
+        printf("AutoBackupWallet: backed up wallet.dat (%llu bytes) to wallet.dat.auto.bak\n",
+               (unsigned long long)walletSize);
+        return true;
+    } catch (const fs::filesystem_error& e) {
+        printf("AutoBackupWallet: failed - %s\n", e.what());
+        return false;
+    }
+}
+
 //
 // CWalletDB
 //
@@ -580,6 +614,10 @@ void ThreadFlushWalletDB(void* parg)
                         nLastFlushed = nWalletDBUpdated;
                         int64_t nStart = GetTimeMillis();
 
+                        // Auto-backup before flush (protects against corruption)
+                        fs::path walletPath = GetDataDir() / strFile;
+                        AutoBackupWallet(walletPath);
+
                         // Flush wallet.dat so it's self contained
                         bitdb.CloseDb(strFile);
                         bitdb.CheckpointLSN(strFile);