diff --git a/app/Jobs/MediaPipeline/EmojiMigrateToCloudPipeline.php b/app/Jobs/MediaPipeline/EmojiMigrateToCloudPipeline.php
deleted file mode 100644
index 4915aebfa..000000000
--- a/app/Jobs/MediaPipeline/EmojiMigrateToCloudPipeline.php
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,60 +0,0 @@
-<?php
-
-namespace App\Jobs\MediaPipeline;
-
-use Illuminate\Bus\Queueable;
-use Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\ShouldBeUnique;
-use Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\ShouldQueue;
-use Illuminate\Foundation\Bus\Dispatchable;
-use Illuminate\Queue\InteractsWithQueue;
-use Illuminate\Queue\SerializesModels;
-use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Artisan;
-use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Log;
-
-class EmojiMigrateToCloudPipeline implements ShouldBeUnique, ShouldQueue
-{
-    use Dispatchable, InteractsWithQueue, Queueable, SerializesModels;
-
-    /**
-     * Bulk emoji upload can take a while; allow up to an hour.
-     */
-    public $timeout = 3600;
-
-    /**
-     * Do not auto-retry a long bulk transfer. It is safe to re-dispatch
-     * manually, but automatic retries would re-run the whole upload.
-     */
-    public $tries = 1;
-
-    /**
-     * Only one migration job should be queued/running at a time.
-     */
-    public $uniqueFor = 3600;
-
-    public function uniqueId(): string
-    {
-        return 'emoji-migrate-to-cloud';
-    }
-
-    public function handle(): void
-    {
-        // Guard again at run time in case cloud storage was toggled off between
-        // dispatch and execution.
-        $cloudEnabled = (bool) config('pixelfed.cloud_storage') || (bool) config_cache('pixelfed.cloud_storage');
-
-        if (! $cloudEnabled) {
-            Log::info('EmojiMigrateToCloudPipeline: cloud storage not enabled, skipping.');
-
-            return;
-        }
-
-        Log::info('EmojiMigrateToCloudPipeline: starting emoji migration to cloud.');
-
-        Artisan::call('admin:EmojiMoveStorageLocalToCloud', [
-            '--force' => true,
-            '--concurrency' => 100,
-        ]);
-
-        Log::info('EmojiMigrateToCloudPipeline: finished. '.trim(Artisan::output()));
-    }
-}
diff --git a/database/migrations/2026_08_30_050000_migrate_local_emoji_to_cloud.php b/database/migrations/2026_08_30_050000_migrate_local_emoji_to_cloud.php
index b4ae481f6..9ce097a6c 100644
--- a/database/migrations/2026_08_30_050000_migrate_local_emoji_to_cloud.php
+++ b/database/migrations/2026_08_30_050000_migrate_local_emoji_to_cloud.php
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 <?php
 
-use App\Jobs\MediaPipeline\EmojiMigrateToCloudPipeline;
 use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
+use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Artisan;
 
 return new class extends Migration
 {
@@ -9,24 +9,26 @@ return new class extends Migration
      * Run the migrations.
      *
      * When cloud storage is enabled, custom emoji URLs resolve to the cloud
-     * disk. Existing emoji may still only exist locally, so migrate them to
-     * cloud to avoid a window where their URLs 404.
+     * disk. Existing emoji may still only exist locally, so move them all to
+     * cloud now (in one pass) to avoid a window where their URLs 404.
      *
-     * The upload is potentially large and network-bound, so we dispatch it to
-     * the queue and return immediately rather than blocking the upgrade. The
-     * work runs in the background on Horizon. No-op on local-only instances.
+     * Run inline (not queued) because the local emoji files live on the web
+     * container's storage, which is where migrations run; a queued worker may
+     * not share that storage. This is a no-op on local-only instances.
      */
     public function up(): void
     {
         // Consider cloud enabled if either the live config or the (possibly
-        // cached) config_cache value says so; the job guards again at runtime.
+        // cached) config_cache value says so; the command guards again anyway.
         $cloudEnabled = (bool) config('pixelfed.cloud_storage') || (bool) config_cache('pixelfed.cloud_storage');
 
         if (! $cloudEnabled) {
             return;
         }
 
-        EmojiMigrateToCloudPipeline::dispatch()->onQueue('mmo');
+        Artisan::call('admin:EmojiMoveStorageLocalToCloud', [
+            '--force' => true,
+        ]);
     }
 
     /**