diff --git a/.changeset/webrtc-init-latch-after-success.md b/.changeset/webrtc-init-latch-after-success.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..192bfe1c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/webrtc-init-latch-after-success.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"client-sdk-android": patch
+---
+
+Fix: only latch WebRTC initialization after PeerConnectionFactory.initialize succeeds, so a failed native library load stays retryable and surfaces as a catchable exception instead of poisoning the process and crashing on the next LiveKit.create() call.
diff --git a/livekit-android-sdk/src/main/java/io/livekit/android/dagger/RTCModule.kt b/livekit-android-sdk/src/main/java/io/livekit/android/dagger/RTCModule.kt
index e8d78fa43..2a0591a96 100644
--- a/livekit-android-sdk/src/main/java/io/livekit/android/dagger/RTCModule.kt
+++ b/livekit-android-sdk/src/main/java/io/livekit/android/dagger/RTCModule.kt
@@ -103,7 +103,6 @@ internal object RTCModule {
         if (!hasInitializedWebrtc) {
             executeBlockingOnRTCThread(LibWebrtcInitializationThreadToken) {
                 if (!hasInitializedWebrtc) {
-                    hasInitializedWebrtc = true
                     PeerConnectionFactory.initialize(
                         PeerConnectionFactory.InitializationOptions
                             .builder(appContext)
@@ -128,6 +127,12 @@ internal object RTCModule {
                             )
                             .createInitializationOptions(),
                     )
+                    // Only latch after initialize succeeds. If it throws (e.g. the native
+                    // library fails to load), latching beforehand would permanently skip
+                    // initialization for the process, and the next native call would crash
+                    // with an uncatchable-by-catch(Exception) UnsatisfiedLinkError instead
+                    // of a catchable failure at the call site.
+                    hasInitializedWebrtc = true
                 }
             }
         }