diff --git a/.bumpversion.cfg b/.bumpversion.cfg
index 9dca11d8..241a703c 100644
--- a/.bumpversion.cfg
+++ b/.bumpversion.cfg
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [bumpversion]
-current_version = 0.4.4
+current_version = 0.4.5
 commit = True
 tag = True
 tag_name = v{new_version}
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index be48b6a9..1559d692 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,15 @@
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+## [0.4.5] - 2026-04-22
+
+Second hotfix for the "offline mode is enabled" crash on model load. 0.4.4 reverted the inference-path offline guards but kept the same trap on the load path, so users who updated to 0.4.4 kept hitting the exact error the release was supposed to fix ([#526](https://github.com/jamiepine/voicebox/issues/526)). This release removes the load-path guards and patches the transformers tokenizer load to be robust to HuggingFace metadata failures at the source, so the class of bug can't recur.
+
+### Reliability
+
+- **Load no longer fails with "offline mode is enabled"** ([#530](https://github.com/jamiepine/voicebox/pull/530), fixes [#526](https://github.com/jamiepine/voicebox/issues/526)). transformers 4.57.x added an unconditional `huggingface_hub.model_info()` call inside `AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained` (via `_patch_mistral_regex`) that runs for every non-local repo load, regardless of cache state or whether the target model is actually a Mistral variant. The load-time `HF_HUB_OFFLINE` guard from 0.4.2 turned that into a hard crash for cached online users the moment 0.4.4 removed the inference-path guard that had been masking the problem. Fix wraps `_patch_mistral_regex` so any exception from the HF metadata check is caught and the tokenizer is returned unchanged — matching the success-path behavior for non-Mistral repos. The wrapper installs at `backend.backends` import time so it covers Qwen Base, Qwen CustomVoice, TADA, and every other transformers-backed engine on Windows, Linux, and CUDA alike. The load-time `force_offline_if_cached` guards were removed — with the wrapper in place they provide zero value and only risk re-introducing the same failure mode.
+- **No more 30s pause when generating without a network.** The HuggingFace metadata timeout called out as a known caveat in 0.4.4 is covered by the same patch; offline users no longer wait for the check to time out before load completes.
+
 ## [0.4.4] - 2026-04-21
 
 Hotfix for a regression in 0.4.3 where generation and transcription could fail outright with "offline mode is enabled" even when the user was online.
@@ -648,7 +657,8 @@ The first public release of Voicebox — an open-source voice synthesis studio p
 
 Tauri v2, React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, FastAPI, Qwen3-TTS, Whisper, SQLite
 
-[Unreleased]: https://github.com/jamiepine/voicebox/compare/v0.4.4...HEAD
+[Unreleased]: https://github.com/jamiepine/voicebox/compare/v0.4.5...HEAD
+[0.4.5]: https://github.com/jamiepine/voicebox/compare/v0.4.4...v0.4.5
 [0.4.4]: https://github.com/jamiepine/voicebox/compare/v0.4.3...v0.4.4
 [0.4.3]: https://github.com/jamiepine/voicebox/compare/v0.4.2...v0.4.3
 [0.4.2]: https://github.com/jamiepine/voicebox/compare/v0.4.1...v0.4.2
diff --git a/app/package.json b/app/package.json
index f149fb1a..a94b30b6 100644
--- a/app/package.json
+++ b/app/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@voicebox/app",
-  "version": "0.4.4",
+  "version": "0.4.5",
   "private": true,
   "type": "module",
   "scripts": {
diff --git a/backend/__init__.py b/backend/__init__.py
index 8cad287e..63f7c5fb 100644
--- a/backend/__init__.py
+++ b/backend/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 # Backend package
 
-__version__ = "0.4.4"
+__version__ = "0.4.5"
diff --git a/landing/package.json b/landing/package.json
index 31d0bd69..b2cbe986 100644
--- a/landing/package.json
+++ b/landing/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@voicebox/landing",
-  "version": "0.4.4",
+  "version": "0.4.5",
   "description": "Landing page for voicebox.sh",
   "scripts": {
     "dev": "next dev --turbo",
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index faee3526..9415f61a 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "voicebox",
-  "version": "0.4.4",
+  "version": "0.4.5",
   "private": true,
   "workspaces": [
     "app",
diff --git a/tauri/package.json b/tauri/package.json
index e2354229..a7b273f8 100644
--- a/tauri/package.json
+++ b/tauri/package.json
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "@voicebox/tauri",
   "private": true,
-  "version": "0.4.4",
+  "version": "0.4.5",
   "type": "module",
   "scripts": {
     "dev": "vite",
diff --git a/tauri/src-tauri/Cargo.toml b/tauri/src-tauri/Cargo.toml
index adc480f0..acc021bd 100644
--- a/tauri/src-tauri/Cargo.toml
+++ b/tauri/src-tauri/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "voicebox"
-version = "0.4.4"
+version = "0.4.5"
 description = "A production-quality desktop app for Qwen3-TTS voice cloning and generation"
 authors = ["you"]
 license = ""
diff --git a/tauri/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json b/tauri/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
index 9cb3efb6..85b7a4f9 100644
--- a/tauri/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
+++ b/tauri/src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "$schema": "https://schema.tauri.app/config/2",
   "productName": "Voicebox",
-  "version": "0.4.4",
+  "version": "0.4.5",
   "identifier": "sh.voicebox.app",
   "build": {
     "beforeDevCommand": "bun run dev",
diff --git a/web/package.json b/web/package.json
index ff8b2668..b8bb5ee2 100644
--- a/web/package.json
+++ b/web/package.json
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "@voicebox/web",
   "private": true,
-  "version": "0.4.4",
+  "version": "0.4.5",
   "type": "module",
   "scripts": {
     "dev": "vite",