diff --git a/app/common/src/main/java/stirling/software/common/service/CustomPDFDocumentFactory.java b/app/common/src/main/java/stirling/software/common/service/CustomPDFDocumentFactory.java
index d106a2729..a7f158539 100644
--- a/app/common/src/main/java/stirling/software/common/service/CustomPDFDocumentFactory.java
+++ b/app/common/src/main/java/stirling/software/common/service/CustomPDFDocumentFactory.java
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ public class CustomPDFDocumentFactory {
 
     // Memory thresholds and limits
 
-    private static final long SMALL_FILE_THRESHOLD = 10 * 1024 * 1024; // 10 MB
+    public static final long SMALL_FILE_THRESHOLD = 10 * 1024 * 1024; // 10 MB
     // Files smaller than this threshold are loaded entirely in memory for better performance.
     // These files use IOUtils.createMemoryOnlyStreamCache() which keeps all document data in RAM.
     // No temp files are created for document data, reducing I/O operations but consuming more
diff --git a/app/proprietary/src/main/java/stirling/software/SPDF/service/PdfJsonConversionService.java b/app/proprietary/src/main/java/stirling/software/SPDF/service/PdfJsonConversionService.java
index e194e3b5f..dfeb095f3 100644
--- a/app/proprietary/src/main/java/stirling/software/SPDF/service/PdfJsonConversionService.java
+++ b/app/proprietary/src/main/java/stirling/software/SPDF/service/PdfJsonConversionService.java
@@ -309,6 +309,13 @@ public class PdfJsonConversionService {
 
             byte[] cachedPdfBytes = null;
 
+            // Pre-read file bytes before loading PDDocument, since loading may delete the file
+            // (small files get loaded into memory and original is deleted)
+            // This is needed for lazy image caching where we need the bytes later
+            if (Files.size(workingPath) <= CustomPDFDocumentFactory.SMALL_FILE_THRESHOLD) {
+                cachedPdfBytes = Files.readAllBytes(workingPath);
+            }
+
             try (PDDocument document = pdfDocumentFactory.load(workingPath, true)) {
                 int totalPages = document.getNumberOfPages();
                 // Only use lazy images for real async jobs where client can access the cache