diff --git a/src/components/CallFooter.tsx b/src/components/CallFooter.tsx
index 86d67db73..632b26148 100644
--- a/src/components/CallFooter.tsx
+++ b/src/components/CallFooter.tsx
@@ -5,15 +5,7 @@ SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-only OR LicenseRef-Element-Commercial
 Please see LICENSE in the repository root for full details.
 */
 
-import {
-  Fragment,
-  type FC,
-  type JSX,
-  type Ref,
-  useCallback,
-  useMemo,
-  useRef,
-} from "react";
+import { type FC, type JSX, type Ref, useCallback, useMemo } from "react";
 import classNames from "classnames";
 import { useTranslation } from "react-i18next";
 import { logger } from "matrix-js-sdk/lib/logger";
@@ -180,29 +172,27 @@ export const CallFooter: FC<FooterProps> = ({
   const selectBackgroundEffect = useBehavior(vm.selectBackgroundEffect$);
   const { added, addBackground } = useAddedBackgrounds();
 
-  const chooseFile = useRef<HTMLInputElement>(null);
-  const onAddBackgroundImage = useCallback((): void => {
-    chooseFile.current?.click();
-  }, []);
-  const onFileChosen = useCallback(
-    (event: React.ChangeEvent<HTMLInputElement>): void => {
-      const file = event.target.files?.[0];
-      // Cleared so choosing the same file twice in a row still counts.
-      event.target.value = "";
-      if (!file) return;
-      addBackground(file).catch((e) => {
-        // TODO: FR-021 wants the user told what went wrong. There is no
-        // surface for that in the menu yet, and inventing one is design's
-        // call, so for now this is only logged.
-        logger.warn(
-          e instanceof UnusableImage
-            ? `Cannot use that file as a background: ${e.reason}`
-            : "Could not keep that background",
-          e,
-        );
-      });
+  const onAddBackgroundImage = useCallback(
+    (file: File): void => {
+      // Chosen for the user straight away: they picked this picture to use it,
+      // and leaving it unselected would ask them to pick it twice.
+      addBackground(file)
+        .then((id) =>
+          selectBackgroundEffect?.(serializeEffect({ kind: "added", id })),
+        )
+        .catch((e) => {
+          // TODO: FR-021 wants the user told what went wrong. There is no
+          // surface for that in the menu yet, and inventing one is design's
+          // call, so for now this is only logged.
+          logger.warn(
+            e instanceof UnusableImage
+              ? `Cannot use that file as a background: ${e.reason}`
+              : "Could not keep that background",
+            e,
+          );
+        });
     },
-    [addBackground],
+    [addBackground, selectBackgroundEffect],
   );
 
   // The catalogue is named here rather than in the view model: the names are
@@ -282,36 +272,26 @@ export const CallFooter: FC<FooterProps> = ({
 
   if ((videoOptions?.length ?? 0) > 0) {
     buttons.push(
-      <Fragment key="video">
-        {/* The picker the add tile opens. Hidden, and driven from the tile,
-            because a file input cannot be styled into one. */}
-        <input
-          ref={chooseFile}
-          type="file"
-          accept="image/*"
-          hidden
-          onChange={onFileChosen}
-        />
-        <MediaMuteAndSwitchButton
-          iconsAndLabels="video"
-          enabled={videoEnabled ?? false}
-          busy={videoBusy ?? false}
-          onMuteClick={toggleVideo}
-          options={videoOptions}
-          selectedOption={selectedVideo}
-          onSelect={selectVideoButtonOption}
-          backgroundEffects={backgroundEffects}
-          selectedBackgroundEffect={backgroundEffect}
-          onSelectBackgroundEffect={selectBackgroundEffect}
-          // Withheld once the device keeps as many as it will, which is what
-          // renders the add tile unavailable rather than letting it fail.
-          onAddBackgroundImage={
-            selectBackgroundEffect && added.length < maxAddedBackgrounds
-              ? onAddBackgroundImage
-              : undefined
-          }
-        />
-      </Fragment>,
+      <MediaMuteAndSwitchButton
+        key="video"
+        iconsAndLabels="video"
+        enabled={videoEnabled ?? false}
+        busy={videoBusy ?? false}
+        onMuteClick={toggleVideo}
+        options={videoOptions}
+        selectedOption={selectedVideo}
+        onSelect={selectVideoButtonOption}
+        backgroundEffects={backgroundEffects}
+        selectedBackgroundEffect={backgroundEffect}
+        onSelectBackgroundEffect={selectBackgroundEffect}
+        // Withheld once the device keeps as many as it will, which is what
+        // renders the add tile unavailable rather than letting it fail.
+        onAddBackgroundImage={
+          selectBackgroundEffect && added.length < maxAddedBackgrounds
+            ? onAddBackgroundImage
+            : undefined
+        }
+      />,
     );
   } else {
     buttons.push(
diff --git a/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.tsx b/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.tsx
index 610d440bc..35ef1b2ea 100644
--- a/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.tsx
+++ b/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.tsx
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import {
   type CSSProperties,
   type FC,
   useEffect,
+  useRef,
   type ReactElement,
 } from "react";
 import {
@@ -104,8 +105,12 @@ export interface MediaMuteAndSwitchButtonProps {
    * wherever background processing is unavailable.
    */
   onSelectBackgroundEffect?: (id: string) => void;
-  /** Called when the add tile is chosen. Omit to leave that tile out. */
-  onAddBackgroundImage?: () => void;
+  /**
+   * Called with the file the user chose from the add tile. Omit to leave that
+   * tile out. The picker lives here rather than with the caller because
+   * opening it takes the focus, which would otherwise dismiss the menu.
+   */
+  onAddBackgroundImage?: (file: File) => void;
   /**
    * For any toggle and option this method will be called.
    * So toggles need to be implemented by listening here and setting the right toggle item to `enabled`
@@ -162,6 +167,21 @@ export const MediaMuteAndSwitchButton: FC<MediaMuteAndSwitchButtonProps> = ({
   // Which device we have asked for but not yet been given. Carries the kind as
   // well as the id, because an input and an output can share an id: "default"
   // names both on Chrome.
+  // Held open across the file picker: a native dialog takes the focus, and the
+  // menu would take that as a click elsewhere and close behind it.
+  const [choosingFile, setChoosingFile] = useState(false);
+  const chooseFile = useRef<HTMLInputElement>(null);
+  useEffect(() => {
+    const input = chooseFile.current;
+    if (!input) return;
+    // Dismissing the picker without choosing fires `cancel`, which React does
+    // not type, so it is listened for directly. Without it the menu would
+    // stay pinned open after a cancelled pick.
+    const done = (): void => setChoosingFile(false);
+    input.addEventListener("cancel", done);
+    return (): void => input.removeEventListener("cancel", done);
+  }, [onAddBackgroundImage]);
+
   const [plannedSelection, setPlannedSelection] = useState<{
     kind: "input" | "output";
     id: string;
@@ -528,7 +548,8 @@ export const MediaMuteAndSwitchButton: FC<MediaMuteAndSwitchButtonProps> = ({
           }
           onSelect={(e) => {
             e.preventDefault();
-            onAddBackgroundImage();
+            setChoosingFile(true);
+            chooseFile.current?.click();
           }}
           key="add-background-image"
         />,
@@ -545,6 +566,21 @@ export const MediaMuteAndSwitchButton: FC<MediaMuteAndSwitchButtonProps> = ({
     >
       {/* The mute button lives inside */}
       {button}
+      {onAddBackgroundImage !== undefined && (
+        <input
+          ref={chooseFile}
+          type="file"
+          accept="image/*"
+          hidden
+          onChange={(e) => {
+            const file = e.target.files?.[0];
+            // Cleared so the same file can be chosen twice in a row.
+            e.target.value = "";
+            setChoosingFile(false);
+            if (file) onAddBackgroundImage(file);
+          }}
+        />
+      )}
       <Menu
         className={styles.menu}
         title={title ?? defaultMenuTitle}
@@ -552,7 +588,11 @@ export const MediaMuteAndSwitchButton: FC<MediaMuteAndSwitchButtonProps> = ({
         // sit on top of the first one. Kept for the accessible name only.
         showTitle={false}
         open={menuOpen}
-        onOpenChange={setMenuOpen}
+        onOpenChange={(open) => {
+          // Ignore the close the file picker provokes by taking the focus.
+          if (!open && choosingFile) return;
+          setMenuOpen(open);
+        }}
         side="top"
         trigger={
           <Button
diff --git a/src/livekit/TrackProcessorContext.tsx b/src/livekit/TrackProcessorContext.tsx
index 77055206f..8d6ca9d1e 100644
--- a/src/livekit/TrackProcessorContext.tsx
+++ b/src/livekit/TrackProcessorContext.tsx
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ export interface AddedBackgrounds {
    * Keeps a file as a background. Rejects with `UnusableImage` for a file that
    * cannot be used, and `RangeError` once the device keeps as many as it will.
    */
-  addBackground: (file: Blob) => Promise<void>;
+  addBackground: (file: Blob) => Promise<string>;
   removeBackground: (id: string) => Promise<void>;
 }
 
@@ -189,7 +189,9 @@ function switchOptionsFor(
   ): SwitchBackgroundProcessorOptions =>
     // A background the device no longer has — removed, or storage cleared —
     // leaves the user with no effect rather than a pipeline drawing nothing.
-    imagePath ? { mode: "virtual-background", imagePath } : { mode: "disabled" };
+    imagePath
+      ? { mode: "virtual-background", imagePath }
+      : { mode: "disabled" };
 
   switch (effect.kind) {
     case "blur":
@@ -230,7 +232,9 @@ export const ProcessorProvider: FC<Props> = ({ children }) => {
   const reread = useCallback(async (): Promise<void> => {
     const kept = await store.list();
     urls.current.forEach((url) => URL.revokeObjectURL(url));
-    urls.current = kept.map((background) => URL.createObjectURL(background.image));
+    urls.current = kept.map((background) =>
+      URL.createObjectURL(background.image),
+    );
     setAdded(kept.map(({ id }, i) => ({ id, url: urls.current[i] })));
   }, [store]);
 
@@ -244,9 +248,10 @@ export const ProcessorProvider: FC<Props> = ({ children }) => {
   }, [reread]);
 
   const addBackground = useCallback(
-    async (file: Blob): Promise<void> => {
-      await store.add(file);
+    async (file: Blob): Promise<string> => {
+      const kept = await store.add(file);
       await reread();
+      return kept.id;
     },
     [store, reread],
   );