diff --git a/cmd/bucket-cors-middleware_test.go b/cmd/bucket-cors-middleware_test.go
index d36d9034e..71af4cf0b 100644
--- a/cmd/bucket-cors-middleware_test.go
+++ b/cmd/bucket-cors-middleware_test.go
@@ -711,3 +711,33 @@ func testBucketCorsLoadFailedBucketFailsClosed(obj ObjectLayer, _ string, _ stri
 		t.Fatalf("load-failed CORS lookup performed %d synchronous bucket metadata reads", got)
 	}
 }
+
+// TestBucketCorsResidentConfigSurvivesRefreshFailure: a resident bucket keeps
+// its last loaded CORS configuration through a failed refresh, like every
+// other bucket configuration, and the failure set never records a resident
+// bucket. Only a bucket that was never loaded fails closed.
+func TestBucketCorsResidentConfigSurvivesRefreshFailure(t *testing.T) {
+	ExecObjectLayerAPITest(ExecObjectLayerAPITestArgs{
+		t:          t,
+		objAPITest: testBucketCorsResidentConfigSurvivesRefreshFailure,
+		endpoints:  []string{"GetBucketCors"},
+	})
+}
+
+func testBucketCorsResidentConfigSurvivesRefreshFailure(obj ObjectLayer, _ string, bucket string, _ http.Handler, _ auth.Credentials, t *testing.T) {
+	if _, err := updateLocalBucketCORSMetadata(t.Context(), obj, bucket, []byte(testSiteReplicationCORSDoc)); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	sys := globalBucketMetadataSys
+	sys.Lock()
+	sys.noteLoadFailure(bucket)
+	_, marked := sys.loadFailed[bucket]
+	sys.Unlock()
+	if marked {
+		t.Fatal("a resident bucket was recorded as a load failure")
+	}
+	cfg, _, err := sys.GetResidentCorsConfig(bucket)
+	if err != nil || cfg == nil {
+		t.Fatalf("resident CORS configuration lost after a refresh failure: cfg=%v err=%v", cfg, err)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/cmd/bucket-metadata-sys.go b/cmd/bucket-metadata-sys.go
index 8f60c6df9..bb59155e4 100644
--- a/cmd/bucket-metadata-sys.go
+++ b/cmd/bucket-metadata-sys.go
@@ -51,17 +51,25 @@ type BucketMetadataSys struct {
 	initialized bool
 	group       *singleflight.Group
 	metadataMap map[string]BucketMetadata
-	// loadFailed records real buckets whose metadata could not be loaded at
-	// startup or during a refresh. They are absent from metadataMap even though
-	// the subsystem is initialized, and without this bit a resident-only lookup
-	// could not tell them apart from a name that is not a bucket at all. The
-	// set is bounded by the number of failed loads and empty in normal operation.
+	// loadFailed records real buckets whose metadata has never been loaded
+	// successfully because the startup load or a refresh failed. They are
+	// absent from metadataMap even though the subsystem is initialized, and
+	// without this bit a resident-only lookup could not tell them apart from a
+	// name that is not a bucket at all. It never holds a resident bucket, is
+	// bounded by the number of failed loads, and is empty in normal operation.
 	loadFailed map[string]struct{}
 }
 
 // noteLoadFailure and clearLoadFailure maintain loadFailed; both expect the
-// caller to hold sys.Lock.
-func (sys *BucketMetadataSys) noteLoadFailure(bucket string)  { sys.loadFailed[bucket] = struct{}{} }
+// caller to hold sys.Lock. A bucket that is resident keeps its last loaded
+// metadata through a failed refresh, exactly like every other bucket
+// configuration, so the set only ever holds non-resident buckets.
+func (sys *BucketMetadataSys) noteLoadFailure(bucket string) {
+	if _, resident := sys.metadataMap[bucket]; !resident {
+		sys.loadFailed[bucket] = struct{}{}
+	}
+}
+
 func (sys *BucketMetadataSys) clearLoadFailure(bucket string) { delete(sys.loadFailed, bucket) }
 
 // Count returns number of bucket metadata map entries.