diff --git a/src/components/Debug.tsx b/src/components/Debug.tsx
index f167b8ba..51c164e8 100644
--- a/src/components/Debug.tsx
+++ b/src/components/Debug.tsx
@@ -781,9 +781,16 @@ const Debug: React.FC<DebugProps> = ({
         }
       })
 
-      // Load deduplicated results via controller
+      // Load deduplicated results via controller (includes articles and external URLs)
       const unsubProgress = readingProgressController.onProgress((progressMap) => {
         setDeduplicatedProgressMap(new Map(progressMap))
+
+        // Regression guard: ensure keys include both naddr and raw URL forms when present
+        try {
+          const keys = Array.from(progressMap.keys())
+          const sample = keys.slice(0, 5).join(', ')
+          DebugBus.info('debug', `Progress keys sample: ${sample}`)
+        } catch {}
       })
 
       // Run both in parallel
diff --git a/src/services/readingDataProcessor.ts b/src/services/readingDataProcessor.ts
index 5c512fa3..b2c26de3 100644
--- a/src/services/readingDataProcessor.ts
+++ b/src/services/readingDataProcessor.ts
@@ -75,10 +75,17 @@ export function processReadingProgress(
           continue
         }
       } else if (dTag.startsWith('url:')) {
-        // It's a URL with base64url encoding
-        const encoded = dTag.replace('url:', '')
+        // It's a URL. We support both raw URLs and base64url-encoded URLs.
+        const value = dTag.slice(4)
+        const looksBase64Url = /^[A-Za-z0-9_-]+$/.test(value) && (value.includes('-') || value.includes('_'))
         try {
-          itemUrl = atob(encoded.replace(/-/g, '+').replace(/_/g, '/'))
+          if (looksBase64Url) {
+            // Decode base64url to raw URL
+            itemUrl = atob(value.replace(/-/g, '+').replace(/_/g, '/'))
+          } else {
+            // Treat as raw URL (already decoded)
+            itemUrl = value
+          }
           itemId = itemUrl
           itemType = 'external'
         } catch (e) {
diff --git a/src/services/readingPositionService.ts b/src/services/readingPositionService.ts
index 56d5f0cc..9602237a 100644
--- a/src/services/readingPositionService.ts
+++ b/src/services/readingPositionService.ts
@@ -98,11 +98,8 @@ export function generateArticleIdentifier(naddrOrUrl: string): string {
   if (naddrOrUrl.startsWith('nostr:')) {
     return naddrOrUrl.replace('nostr:', '')
   }
-  // For URLs, use base64url encoding (URL-safe)
-  return btoa(naddrOrUrl)
-    .replace(/\+/g, '-')
-    .replace(/\//g, '_')
-    .replace(/=+$/, '')
+  // For URLs, return the raw URL. Downstream tag generation will encode as needed.
+  return naddrOrUrl
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/src/services/readingProgressController.ts b/src/services/readingProgressController.ts
index f4949355..3d0af404 100644
--- a/src/services/readingProgressController.ts
+++ b/src/services/readingProgressController.ts
@@ -276,10 +276,10 @@ class ReadingProgressController {
     // Process new events
     processReadingProgress(events, readsMap)
     
-    // Convert back to progress map (naddr -> progress)
+    // Convert back to progress map (id -> progress). Include both articles and external URLs.
     const newProgressMap = new Map<string, number>()
     for (const [id, item] of readsMap.entries()) {
-      if (item.readingProgress !== undefined && item.type === 'article') {
+      if (item.readingProgress !== undefined) {
         newProgressMap.set(id, item.readingProgress)
       }
     }