diff --git a/crates/core/src/connection.rs b/crates/core/src/connection.rs
index e375b69..b395b99 100644
--- a/crates/core/src/connection.rs
+++ b/crates/core/src/connection.rs
@@ -7281,12 +7281,11 @@ pub struct ConnectionActor {
 impl ConnectionActor {
     /// Spawn the actor wrapping a shared Arc<Mutex<CM>>, returning a ConnHandle.
     /// During migration, both the actor and legacy lock-callers share state.
-    pub fn spawn_with_arc(cm: Arc<Mutex<ConnectionManager>>) -> ConnHandle {
+    pub async fn spawn_with_arc(cm: Arc<Mutex<ConnectionManager>>) -> ConnHandle {
         let (tx, rx) = mpsc::channel(256);
         // Hoist frequently-needed Arcs so handlers can skip the conn_mgr lock
         let (storage, blob_store, endpoint, our_node_id, activity_log, is_anchor) = {
-            // Brief lock just to clone the Arcs
-            let cm_guard = cm.blocking_lock();
+            let cm_guard = cm.lock().await;
             (
                 Arc::clone(&cm_guard.storage),
                 Arc::clone(&cm_guard.blob_store),
@@ -7302,8 +7301,8 @@ impl ConnectionActor {
     }
 
     /// Spawn the actor owning the ConnectionManager directly (Phase 5+).
-    pub fn spawn(cm: ConnectionManager) -> ConnHandle {
-        Self::spawn_with_arc(Arc::new(Mutex::new(cm)))
+    pub async fn spawn(cm: ConnectionManager) -> ConnHandle {
+        Self::spawn_with_arc(Arc::new(Mutex::new(cm))).await
     }
 
     async fn run(mut self) {
diff --git a/crates/core/src/network.rs b/crates/core/src/network.rs
index e36e885..bd8dda2 100644
--- a/crates/core/src/network.rs
+++ b/crates/core/src/network.rs
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ impl Network {
         let conn_mgr = Arc::new(Mutex::new(conn_mgr));
 
         // Spawn actor wrapping the same Arc<Mutex<CM>> (Phase 1: additive)
-        let conn_handle = ConnectionActor::spawn_with_arc(Arc::clone(&conn_mgr));
+        let conn_handle = ConnectionActor::spawn_with_arc(Arc::clone(&conn_mgr)).await;
 
         // TCP UPnP mapping for HTTP post delivery (only if UDP UPnP succeeded)
         let has_upnp_tcp = if let Some(ref mapping) = upnp_mapping {
diff --git a/crates/core/src/storage.rs b/crates/core/src/storage.rs
index 98df0dc..22895f9 100644
--- a/crates/core/src/storage.rs
+++ b/crates/core/src/storage.rs
@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@ pub struct StoragePool {
     slots: Vec<tokio::sync::Mutex<Storage>>,
 }
 
-const STORAGE_POOL_SIZE: usize = 8;
+/// Pool size: 4 connections balances parallelism with resource constraints (Android fd limits).
+const STORAGE_POOL_SIZE: usize = 4;
 
 impl StoragePool {
     /// Create a pool of Storage connections to the same database.