diff --git a/src/lib/components/admin/Settings/Interface.svelte b/src/lib/components/admin/Settings/Interface.svelte
index 0a4d0a6891..204415910c 100644
--- a/src/lib/components/admin/Settings/Interface.svelte
+++ b/src/lib/components/admin/Settings/Interface.svelte
@@ -10,9 +10,16 @@
 	import Switch from '$lib/components/common/Switch.svelte';
 	import Textarea from '$lib/components/common/Textarea.svelte';
 	import Spinner from '$lib/components/common/Spinner.svelte';
+	import ConfirmDialog from '$lib/components/common/ConfirmDialog.svelte';
+	import InterfaceDefaultsModal from './Interface/InterfaceDefaultsModal.svelte';
 
 	import { resetAllUsersInterfaceSettings } from '$lib/apis/users';
 
+	// Toggles for the admin-defaults modal and the "reset all users" confirm
+	// dialog rendered at the bottom of this panel.
+	let showInterfaceDefaultsModal = false;
+	let showResetConfirmDialog = false;
+
 	const dispatch = createEventDispatcher();
 
 	const i18n = getContext('i18n');
diff --git a/src/lib/components/admin/Settings/Interface/InterfaceDefaultsModal.svelte b/src/lib/components/admin/Settings/Interface/InterfaceDefaultsModal.svelte
index cdefeac1bb..8c9f1dbf81 100644
--- a/src/lib/components/admin/Settings/Interface/InterfaceDefaultsModal.svelte
+++ b/src/lib/components/admin/Settings/Interface/InterfaceDefaultsModal.svelte
@@ -33,16 +33,15 @@
 		}
 	};
 
-	// Prepare settings for backend - normalize chatDirection and filter nulls
+	// Prepare settings for backend — strip nulls so absent keys fall through
+	// to the user's own setting via deep-merge on load. Do NOT lowercase
+	// chatDirection: the user-side store is typed 'LTR' | 'RTL' | 'auto'
+	// and the toggle/render logic in chat/Settings/Interface.svelte matches
+	// against the uppercase values. Lowercasing here made admin defaults
+	// silently render as "Auto" because neither 'ltr' nor 'rtl' matched.
 	const prepareForBackend = (settings: any): object => {
-		const result = { ...settings };
-
-		if (result.chatDirection) {
-			result.chatDirection = result.chatDirection.toLowerCase();
-		}
-
 		return Object.fromEntries(
-			Object.entries(result).filter(([_, v]) => v !== undefined && v !== null)
+			Object.entries({ ...settings }).filter(([_, v]) => v !== undefined && v !== null)
 		);
 	};
 
@@ -89,12 +88,15 @@
 			</div>
 
 			{#if !loading}
-				<form
-					class="flex flex-col w-full"
-					on:submit|preventDefault={() => {
-						submitHandler();
-					}}
-				>
+				<!--
+					No outer <form> wrapper: InterfaceSettings already renders its
+					own <form>, and nesting forms is invalid HTML and produces
+					unpredictable submit/event routing across browsers. The
+					InterfaceSettings component feeds changes back through the
+					saveAdminSettings prop, so we just need a Save button that
+					pushes the accumulated adminDefaults to the backend.
+				-->
+				<div class="flex flex-col w-full">
 					<div class="interface-defaults-wrapper">
 						<InterfaceSettings initialSettings={adminDefaults} saveSettings={saveAdminSettings} />
 					</div>
@@ -104,7 +106,8 @@
 							class="px-3.5 py-1.5 text-sm font-medium bg-black hover:bg-gray-900 text-white dark:bg-white dark:text-black dark:hover:bg-gray-100 transition rounded-full flex flex-row space-x-1 items-center {saving
 								? ' cursor-not-allowed'
 								: ''}"
-							type="submit"
+							type="button"
+							on:click={submitHandler}
 							disabled={saving}
 						>
 							{$i18n.t('Save')}
@@ -116,7 +119,7 @@
 							{/if}
 						</button>
 					</div>
-				</form>
+				</div>
 			{:else}
 				<div class="flex justify-center items-center py-8">
 					<Spinner className="size-5" />
diff --git a/src/lib/utils/index.ts b/src/lib/utils/index.ts
index 9617f4e6d4..4d26d1ff4d 100644
--- a/src/lib/utils/index.ts
+++ b/src/lib/utils/index.ts
@@ -1840,6 +1840,7 @@ export const formatSkillName = (name) => {
     return name.replace(/[-_]/g, ' ').replace(/\b\w/g, (c) => c.toUpperCase());
 };
 
+/**
  * Open the file browser panel to display a specific file.
  * Used by both the direct tool execution path (client-side) and the
  * backend event path (server-side) so behaviour is consistent.
diff --git a/src/routes/+layout.svelte b/src/routes/+layout.svelte
index edebe8b14f..480f01f2c4 100644
--- a/src/routes/+layout.svelte
+++ b/src/routes/+layout.svelte
@@ -916,19 +916,21 @@
 				$socket?.on('events', chatEventHandler);
 				$socket?.on('events:channel', channelEventHandler);
 
-				const userSettings = await getUserSettings(localStorage.token);
+				// Fetch user settings and admin-configured interface defaults in
+				// parallel — both are independent network calls on the hot
+				// authenticated-load path, and serializing them added
+				// avoidable round-trip latency. Defaults fall back to {} if
+				// the endpoint is unavailable so user settings still apply.
+				const [userSettings, adminDefaults] = await Promise.all([
+					getUserSettings(localStorage.token),
+					getInterfaceDefaults(localStorage.token).catch((e) => {
+						console.warn('Failed to load admin interface defaults:', e);
+						return {};
+					})
+				]);
 
-				// Fetch admin-configured interface defaults and merge with user settings
-				let effectiveSettings = {};
-				try {
-					const adminDefaults = await getInterfaceDefaults(localStorage.token);
-					const userUI = userSettings?.ui ?? {};
-					// Admin defaults are base, user settings override
-					effectiveSettings = deepMerge(adminDefaults, userUI);
-				} catch (e) {
-					// Fall back to user settings if admin defaults unavailable
-					effectiveSettings = userSettings?.ui ?? {};
-				}
+				// Admin defaults are base, user settings override.
+				const effectiveSettings = deepMerge(adminDefaults ?? {}, userSettings?.ui ?? {});
 
 				if (userSettings) {
 					settings.set(effectiveSettings);