diff --git a/src/store/playerStore.ts b/src/store/playerStore.ts
index 122fb3ec..3c24cf76 100644
--- a/src/store/playerStore.ts
+++ b/src/store/playerStore.ts
@@ -24,6 +24,12 @@ import { resolveReplayGainDb } from '../utils/resolveReplayGainDb';
 import { shuffleArray } from '../utils/shuffleArray';
 import { songToTrack } from '../utils/songToTrack';
 import { buildInfiniteQueueCandidates } from '../utils/buildInfiniteQueueCandidates';
+import {
+  normalizeAnalysisTrackId,
+  queuesStructuralEqual,
+  sameQueueTrackId,
+  shallowCloneQueueTracks,
+} from '../utils/queueIdentity';
 import { getWindowKind } from '../app/windowKind';
 
 // Re-export for backward compatibility with the ~30 call sites that still
@@ -370,10 +376,6 @@ export function consumePendingQueueListScrollTop(): number | undefined {
   return v;
 }
 
-function shallowCloneQueueTracks(queue: Track[]): Track[] {
-  return queue.map(t => ({ ...t }));
-}
-
 function queueUndoSnapshotFromState(s: PlayerState): QueueUndoSnapshot {
   const scrollTop = readQueueListScrollTopForUndo();
   return {
@@ -476,28 +478,6 @@ function emitNormalizationDebug(step: string, details?: Record<string, unknown>)
   }).catch(() => {});
 }
 
-function normalizeAnalysisTrackId(trackId?: string | null): string | null {
-  if (!trackId) return null;
-  if (trackId.startsWith('stream:')) return trackId.slice('stream:'.length);
-  return trackId;
-}
-
-/** Compare track ids across `stream:` / bare Subsonic forms. */
-function sameQueueTrackId(a: string | undefined | null, b: string | undefined | null): boolean {
-  if (a == null || b == null) return false;
-  const na = normalizeAnalysisTrackId(a) ?? a;
-  const nb = normalizeAnalysisTrackId(b) ?? b;
-  return na === nb;
-}
-
-function queuesStructuralEqual(a: Track[], b: Track[]): boolean {
-  if (a.length !== b.length) return false;
-  for (let i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
-    if (!sameQueueTrackId(a[i]?.id, b[i]?.id)) return false;
-  }
-  return true;
-}
-
 function normalizationAlmostEqual(a: number | null, b: number | null, eps = 0.12): boolean {
   if (a == null && b == null) return true;
   if (a == null || b == null) return false;
diff --git a/src/utils/queueIdentity.test.ts b/src/utils/queueIdentity.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..68ef72da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/utils/queueIdentity.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+/**
+ * Pure helpers extracted from playerStore. The interesting behaviour is the
+ * `stream:` prefix normalization (Rust events sometimes wrap track ids when
+ * routing through the HTTP source) and the no-op detection in
+ * `queuesStructuralEqual` that prevents unnecessary store rewrites.
+ */
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+import type { Track } from '../store/playerStore';
+import {
+  normalizeAnalysisTrackId,
+  queuesStructuralEqual,
+  sameQueueTrackId,
+  shallowCloneQueueTracks,
+} from './queueIdentity';
+
+function track(id: string, overrides: Partial<Track> = {}): Track {
+  return {
+    id,
+    title: `Title ${id}`,
+    artist: 'Artist',
+    album: 'Album',
+    albumId: 'A',
+    duration: 180,
+    ...overrides,
+  };
+}
+
+describe('normalizeAnalysisTrackId', () => {
+  it('strips the stream: prefix', () => {
+    expect(normalizeAnalysisTrackId('stream:abc123')).toBe('abc123');
+  });
+
+  it('returns bare ids unchanged', () => {
+    expect(normalizeAnalysisTrackId('abc123')).toBe('abc123');
+  });
+
+  it('returns null for null / undefined / empty', () => {
+    expect(normalizeAnalysisTrackId(null)).toBeNull();
+    expect(normalizeAnalysisTrackId(undefined)).toBeNull();
+    expect(normalizeAnalysisTrackId('')).toBeNull();
+  });
+});
+
+describe('sameQueueTrackId', () => {
+  it('matches bare ids', () => {
+    expect(sameQueueTrackId('a', 'a')).toBe(true);
+    expect(sameQueueTrackId('a', 'b')).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it('matches across stream: prefix mismatch', () => {
+    expect(sameQueueTrackId('stream:a', 'a')).toBe(true);
+    expect(sameQueueTrackId('a', 'stream:a')).toBe(true);
+    expect(sameQueueTrackId('stream:a', 'stream:a')).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('returns false when either side is null', () => {
+    expect(sameQueueTrackId(null, 'a')).toBe(false);
+    expect(sameQueueTrackId('a', null)).toBe(false);
+    expect(sameQueueTrackId(null, null)).toBe(false);
+  });
+});
+
+describe('queuesStructuralEqual', () => {
+  it('returns true for same ids in same order', () => {
+    expect(queuesStructuralEqual([track('a'), track('b')], [track('a'), track('b')])).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('returns true when one side wraps ids with stream:', () => {
+    expect(queuesStructuralEqual(
+      [track('a'), track('b')],
+      [track('stream:a'), track('stream:b')],
+    )).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('returns false for different lengths', () => {
+    expect(queuesStructuralEqual([track('a')], [track('a'), track('b')])).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it('returns false for any id mismatch', () => {
+    expect(queuesStructuralEqual([track('a'), track('b')], [track('a'), track('c')])).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it('treats empty queues as equal', () => {
+    expect(queuesStructuralEqual([], [])).toBe(true);
+  });
+});
+
+describe('shallowCloneQueueTracks', () => {
+  it('returns a new array with new objects (callers can mutate freely)', () => {
+    const original = [track('a'), track('b')];
+    const cloned = shallowCloneQueueTracks(original);
+    expect(cloned).not.toBe(original);
+    expect(cloned[0]).not.toBe(original[0]);
+    expect(cloned[1]).not.toBe(original[1]);
+    expect(cloned).toEqual(original);
+  });
+
+  it('preserves all fields', () => {
+    const original = [track('a', { coverArt: 'cover', userRating: 5, autoAdded: true })];
+    const cloned = shallowCloneQueueTracks(original);
+    expect(cloned[0]).toEqual(original[0]);
+  });
+
+  it('handles empty queues', () => {
+    expect(shallowCloneQueueTracks([])).toEqual([]);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/utils/queueIdentity.ts b/src/utils/queueIdentity.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..af39612b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/utils/queueIdentity.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+import type { Track } from '../store/playerStore';
+
+/**
+ * Strip the `stream:` prefix that some Rust events attach to track ids when
+ * they're routed through the HTTP source. Both forms identify the same track,
+ * so equality and structural-diff checks need to normalize first.
+ */
+export function normalizeAnalysisTrackId(trackId?: string | null): string | null {
+  if (!trackId) return null;
+  if (trackId.startsWith('stream:')) return trackId.slice('stream:'.length);
+  return trackId;
+}
+
+/** Compare track ids across `stream:` / bare Subsonic forms. */
+export function sameQueueTrackId(a: string | undefined | null, b: string | undefined | null): boolean {
+  if (a == null || b == null) return false;
+  const na = normalizeAnalysisTrackId(a) ?? a;
+  const nb = normalizeAnalysisTrackId(b) ?? b;
+  return na === nb;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Same-length + same-ids check. Used to skip no-op queue rewrites that would
+ * otherwise reset selection / scroll / drag-source state in subscribers.
+ */
+export function queuesStructuralEqual(a: Track[], b: Track[]): boolean {
+  if (a.length !== b.length) return false;
+  for (let i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
+    if (!sameQueueTrackId(a[i]?.id, b[i]?.id)) return false;
+  }
+  return true;
+}
+
+/** One-level clone so callers can mutate per-track fields without aliasing state. */
+export function shallowCloneQueueTracks(queue: Track[]): Track[] {
+  return queue.map(t => ({ ...t }));
+}