diff --git a/locales/en/app.json b/locales/en/app.json
index f273f503f..f6265c4f2 100644
--- a/locales/en/app.json
+++ b/locales/en/app.json
@@ -96,6 +96,10 @@
   },
   "disconnected_banner": "Connectivity to the server has been lost.",
   "error": {
+    "background_animated": "Animated images cannot be used as a background",
+    "background_not_an_image": "That file is not an image",
+    "background_not_kept": "That background could not be saved",
+    "background_undecodable": "That image could not be opened",
     "call_is_not_supported": "Call is not supported",
     "call_not_found": "Call not found",
     "call_not_found_description": "<0>That link doesn't appear to belong to any existing call. Check that you have the right link, or <2>create a new one</2>.</0>",
diff --git a/src/components/CallFooter.tsx b/src/components/CallFooter.tsx
index 5a62443ba..884cf9b2f 100644
--- a/src/components/CallFooter.tsx
+++ b/src/components/CallFooter.tsx
@@ -5,7 +5,14 @@ SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-only OR LicenseRef-Element-Commercial
 Please see LICENSE in the repository root for full details.
 */
 
-import { type FC, type JSX, type Ref, useCallback, useMemo } from "react";
+import {
+  type FC,
+  type JSX,
+  type Ref,
+  useCallback,
+  useMemo,
+  useState,
+} from "react";
 import classNames from "classnames";
 import { useTranslation } from "react-i18next";
 import { logger } from "matrix-js-sdk/lib/logger";
@@ -172,6 +179,27 @@ export const CallFooter: FC<FooterProps> = ({
   const backgroundEffect = useBehavior(vm.backgroundEffect$);
   const selectBackgroundEffect = useBehavior(vm.selectBackgroundEffect$);
   const { added, addBackground, removeBackground } = useAddedBackgrounds();
+  const [backgroundEffectError, setBackgroundEffectError] = useState<
+    string | undefined
+  >(undefined);
+
+  // Spelled out rather than built from the reason, so the extractor can find
+  // every string it has to translate.
+  const whyRefused = useCallback(
+    (e: unknown): string => {
+      if (e instanceof UnusableImage)
+        switch (e.reason) {
+          case "not-an-image":
+            return t("error.background_not_an_image");
+          case "animated":
+            return t("error.background_animated");
+          case "undecodable":
+            return t("error.background_undecodable");
+        }
+      return t("error.background_not_kept");
+    },
+    [t],
+  );
 
   const onRemoveBackgroundEffect = useCallback(
     (id: string): void => {
@@ -188,6 +216,7 @@ export const CallFooter: FC<FooterProps> = ({
     (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.
+      setBackgroundEffectError(undefined);
       addBackground(file)
         .then((id) =>
           selectBackgroundEffect?.(serializeEffect({ kind: "added", id })),
@@ -196,6 +225,7 @@ export const CallFooter: FC<FooterProps> = ({
           // 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.
+          setBackgroundEffectError(whyRefused(e));
           logger.warn(
             e instanceof UnusableImage
               ? `Cannot use that file as a background: ${e.reason}`
@@ -204,7 +234,7 @@ export const CallFooter: FC<FooterProps> = ({
           );
         });
     },
-    [addBackground, selectBackgroundEffect],
+    [addBackground, selectBackgroundEffect, whyRefused],
   );
 
   // The catalogue is named here rather than in the view model: the names are
@@ -305,6 +335,7 @@ export const CallFooter: FC<FooterProps> = ({
             : undefined
         }
         onRemoveBackgroundEffect={onRemoveBackgroundEffect}
+        backgroundEffectError={backgroundEffectError}
       />,
     );
   } else {
diff --git a/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.module.css b/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.module.css
index 47c349991..eb86b316b 100644
--- a/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.module.css
+++ b/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.module.css
@@ -369,3 +369,8 @@ Please see LICENSE in the repository root for full details.
   flex: 1;
   min-inline-size: 0;
 }
+
+/* Sits under the tiles, inside the same margin they keep from the frame. */
+.effectError {
+  padding: 0 var(--cpd-space-4x) var(--cpd-space-4x);
+}
diff --git a/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.stories.tsx b/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.stories.tsx
index 8bb945424..50f8c2e30 100644
--- a/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.stories.tsx
+++ b/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.stories.tsx
@@ -1014,3 +1014,30 @@ export const RemovingWithLiveSelection: Story = {
     await expect(none).toHaveAttribute("aria-checked", "true");
   },
 };
+
+/** A file that could not be used, said where the user chose it. */
+export const BackgroundImageRefused: Story = {
+  args: {
+    ...BackgroundEffects.args,
+    backgroundEffectError: "Animated images cannot be used as a background",
+  },
+  play: async ({ canvasElement }) => {
+    const canvas = within(canvasElement);
+    await userEvent.click(canvas.getByRole("button", { name: "Camera" }));
+    const body = within(document.body);
+
+    // Scoped to the open menu: a closed one leaves its own markup behind, and
+    // the first match in the document belongs to that rather than to this.
+    const menu = await body.findByRole("menu");
+    await waitFor(async () =>
+      expect(
+        menu.querySelector<HTMLElement>(`.${styles.effectError}`),
+      ).toHaveTextContent("Animated images cannot be used as a background"),
+    );
+    // The grid is still there to choose from: being refused a file changes
+    // nothing about the background in force.
+    await expect(
+      await body.findByRole("menuitemradio", { name: "None" }),
+    ).toHaveAttribute("aria-checked", "true");
+  },
+};
diff --git a/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.tsx b/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.tsx
index 8139bb801..45cffe8f9 100644
--- a/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.tsx
+++ b/src/components/MediaMuteAndSwitchButton.tsx
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import {
   type ReactElement,
 } from "react";
 import {
+  Alert,
   Button,
   Menu,
   MenuItem,
@@ -120,6 +121,11 @@ export interface MediaMuteAndSwitchButtonProps {
    * wearing, and taking it away would leave them with nothing chosen.
    */
   onRemoveBackgroundEffect?: (id: string) => void;
+  /**
+   * Why the last file the user offered could not be used, if it could not.
+   * Shown with the grid, where they chose it.
+   */
+  backgroundEffectError?: string;
   /**
    * 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`
@@ -172,6 +178,7 @@ export const MediaMuteAndSwitchButton: FC<MediaMuteAndSwitchButtonProps> = ({
   onSelectBackgroundEffect,
   onAddBackgroundImage,
   onRemoveBackgroundEffect,
+  backgroundEffectError,
   onSelect,
 }) => {
   // Which device we have asked for but not yet been given. Carries the kind as
@@ -760,6 +767,13 @@ export const MediaMuteAndSwitchButton: FC<MediaMuteAndSwitchButtonProps> = ({
                 <div role="none" className={styles.effectGrid}>
                   {effectTiles()}
                 </div>
+                {backgroundEffectError !== undefined && (
+                  // Beside the grid rather than over the call: the user is
+                  // looking here, having just chosen the file this is about.
+                  <div role="none" className={styles.effectError}>
+                    <Alert type="critical" title={backgroundEffectError} />
+                  </div>
+                )}
               </div>
             )}
         </div>