diff --git a/backend/tests/conftest.py b/backend/tests/conftest.py
index ddb5a4d..d8258fd 100644
--- a/backend/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/backend/tests/conftest.py
@@ -82,9 +82,11 @@ def db_session():
             conn.execute(text("PRAGMA foreign_keys = OFF"))
             # Fetch all tables from the metadata
             for table_name in reversed(Base.metadata.tables.keys()):
-                # Avoid truncating internal alembic or FTS tables
-                if "alembic" not in table_name and "fts" not in table_name:
+                # Avoid truncating internal alembic tables
+                if "alembic" not in table_name:
                     conn.execute(text(f"DELETE FROM {table_name}"))
+            # FTS5 virtual table is not in Base.metadata; clear it explicitly
+            conn.execute(text("DELETE FROM filesystem_fts"))
             conn.execute(text("PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON"))
 
 
diff --git a/backend/tests/test_api_inventory.py b/backend/tests/test_api_inventory.py
index 005bfa0..4b8d6be 100644
--- a/backend/tests/test_api_inventory.py
+++ b/backend/tests/test_api_inventory.py
@@ -147,14 +147,21 @@ def test_search_index(client, db_session):
     )
     db_session.commit()
 
-    # Trigger FTS manually since we are using raw SQL triggers which might not have fired
-    # if we didn't insert via SQL or if there are issues in :memory:
-    # but conftest uses a real temp file.
+    # Manually insert into FTS5 since triggers may not fire on ORM inserts in tests
+    from sqlalchemy import text
+
+    db_session.execute(
+        text("INSERT INTO filesystem_fts(rowid, file_path) VALUES (:rowid, :path)"),
+        {"rowid": file1.id, "path": file1.file_path},
+    )
     db_session.commit()
 
     response = client.get("/archive/search?q=important")
     assert response.status_code == 200
-    # If FTS5 is working, it should return results.
+    data = response.json()
+    assert len(data) == 1
+    assert data[0]["path"] == "data/important.doc"
+    assert data[0]["name"] == "important.doc"
 
 
 def test_get_metadata(client, db_session):
diff --git a/backend/tests/test_api_system.py b/backend/tests/test_api_system.py
index b0efcbc..739af8f 100644
--- a/backend/tests/test_api_system.py
+++ b/backend/tests/test_api_system.py
@@ -70,10 +70,17 @@ def test_get_scan_status(client):
 
 
 def test_ls_root(client):
-    """Tests listing the root directory."""
+    """Tests listing the root directory returns actual subdirectories."""
     response = client.get("/system/ls?path=/")
     assert response.status_code == 200
-    assert isinstance(response.json(), list)
+    data = response.json()
+    assert isinstance(data, list)
+    assert len(data) > 0
+    for entry in data:
+        assert "name" in entry
+        assert "path" in entry
+        assert entry["name"] != ""
+        assert entry["path"] != ""
 
 
 def test_ignore_hardware(client):
@@ -465,10 +472,13 @@ def test_ignore_hardware_duplicate(client):
 
 
 def test_database_export(client):
-    """Tests database export endpoint returns a file response."""
+    """Tests database export endpoint returns a SQLite file download."""
     response = client.get("/system/database/export")
-    # May return 200 with file or 404 if db path not found
-    assert response.status_code in (200, 404)
+    assert response.status_code == 200
+    assert "tapehoard_index_" in response.headers["content-disposition"]
+    assert ".db" in response.headers["content-disposition"]
+    # Should contain SQLite magic bytes
+    assert response.content[:16] == b"SQLite format 3\x00"
 
 
 # ── Tracking Batch ──
@@ -548,5 +558,5 @@ def test_test_notification_invalid_url(client):
     response = client.post(
         "/system/notifications/test", json={"url": "not-a-valid-url"}
     )
-    # Notification manager may succeed or fail depending on apprise parsing
-    assert response.status_code in (200, 500)
+    assert response.status_code == 500
+    assert "Failed to dispatch test alert" in response.json()["detail"]