diff --git a/Failover/failover.sh b/Failover/failover.sh
index ab03978..85be47e 100644
--- a/Failover/failover.sh
+++ b/Failover/failover.sh
@@ -471,6 +471,13 @@ run_handback() {
 
     info "Outage duration: ${outage_minutes}min"
 
+    # Check rsync gate before running any writeback
+    if ! check_rsync_enabled "FAILOVER"; then
+        warn "FAILOVER_RSYNC_ENABLED=false — skipping all writeback jobs"
+        warn "Handback will complete without syncing state back to primary"
+        return 0
+    fi
+
     run_writeback_tier() {
         local tier="$1"
         local threshold="$2"
diff --git a/Master.conf b/Master.conf
index 56e00b0..f29d780 100644
--- a/Master.conf
+++ b/Master.conf
@@ -265,6 +265,30 @@ MEDIA_MANAGEMENT_JOBS=(
 # ── RSYNC ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 # ==============================================================================================
 
+# ━━━ Rsync Enable/Disable ━━━
+# Two-tier toggle system — Tier 1 overrides Tier 2.
+#
+# Tier 1 — Global gate:
+#   RSYNC_ENABLED=false → ALL rsync stops everywhere, no exceptions
+#   Use when: remote server completely offline, major maintenance, disaster recovery
+#
+# Tier 2 — Per-orchestrator (only applies when Tier 1 is true):
+#   Fine grained control — disable specific orchestrators while keeping others
+#   Use when: rebuilding secondary, testing, per-window bandwidth management
+#
+# Real world example (HOST2 data rebuild — your current situation):
+#   RSYNC_ENABLED=true           ← rsync works, individual scripts run fine
+#   DAILY_RSYNC_ENABLED=false    ← skip daily HDD syncs during rebuild
+#   WEEKLY_RSYNC_ENABLED=true    ← Emby + Critical-Data still sync (NVMe, separate BW)
+#   FAILOVER_RSYNC_ENABLED=true  ← handback writeback still works when needed
+#   → Run individual: bash Rsync/rsync.sh /mnt/user/Movies (test each share manually)
+#   → When ready: DAILY_RSYNC_ENABLED=true
+
+    RSYNC_ENABLED=true              # Tier 1 — global gate, overrides everything below
+    DAILY_RSYNC_ENABLED=false       # Tier 2 — daily_sync_maintenance.sh rsync section
+    WEEKLY_RSYNC_ENABLED=true       # Tier 2 — weekly_sync_maintenance.sh rsync section
+    FAILOVER_RSYNC_ENABLED=true     # Tier 2 — failover.sh writeback jobs on handback
+
 # ━━━ Rsync Defaults ━━━
 # Global fallback values used when no profile match is found.
 # Media shares in HOST*_DAILY_SYNC_SHARES always use these globals — no profile needed.
diff --git a/Orchestrators/daily_sync_maintenance.sh b/Orchestrators/daily_sync_maintenance.sh
index 864f070..e4f2688 100644
--- a/Orchestrators/daily_sync_maintenance.sh
+++ b/Orchestrators/daily_sync_maintenance.sh
@@ -147,10 +147,14 @@ echo "$ICON_SUMMARY Shares: $SHARE_COUNT"
 echo ""
 
 SHARE_INDEX=0
-
 ABORT_ALL_SYNCS=false
 
-for SHARE in "${ALL_SHARES[@]}"; do
+# Tier 1 + Tier 2 rsync gate check
+if ! check_rsync_enabled "DAILY"; then
+    warn "Rsync disabled — skipping all $SHARE_COUNT share syncs"
+    warn "Proceeding to media management jobs..."
+else
+    for SHARE in "${ALL_SHARES[@]}"; do
     SHARE_INDEX=$((SHARE_INDEX + 1))
     SHARE_NAME=$(basename "$SHARE")
     SHARE_START=$(date +%s)
@@ -190,6 +194,7 @@ for SHARE in "${ALL_SHARES[@]}"; do
 
     echo ""
 done
+fi  # end check_rsync_enabled "DAILY"
 
 TOTAL_END=$(date +%s)
 TOTAL_DURATION=$((TOTAL_END - TOTAL_START))
diff --git a/Orchestrators/weekly_sync_maintenance.sh b/Orchestrators/weekly_sync_maintenance.sh
index 3074ce6..5560e71 100644
--- a/Orchestrators/weekly_sync_maintenance.sh
+++ b/Orchestrators/weekly_sync_maintenance.sh
@@ -177,10 +177,16 @@ echo "$ICON_SUMMARY Jobs: $SHARE_COUNT"
 echo ""
 
 JOB_NUM=0
-for JOB in "${SYNC_JOBS[@]}"; do
-    ((JOB_NUM++))
-    JOB_NAME=$(basename "$JOB")
-    echo "━━━ [$JOB_NUM/$SHARE_COUNT] $JOB_NAME ━━━"
+
+# Tier 1 + Tier 2 rsync gate check
+if ! check_rsync_enabled "WEEKLY"; then
+    warn "Rsync disabled — skipping all $SHARE_COUNT weekly sync jobs"
+    warn "Proceeding to container updates and maintenance scripts..."
+else
+    for JOB in "${SYNC_JOBS[@]}"; do
+        ((JOB_NUM++))
+        JOB_NAME=$(basename "$JOB")
+        echo "━━━ [$JOB_NUM/$SHARE_COUNT] $JOB_NAME ━━━"
 
     JOB_START=$(date +%s)
 
@@ -207,6 +213,7 @@ for JOB in "${SYNC_JOBS[@]}"; do
 
     echo ""
 done
+fi  # end check_rsync_enabled "WEEKLY"
 
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # ━━━ $ICON_START $ICON_CONTAINERS Start Containers ━━━
diff --git a/Rsync/rsync.sh b/Rsync/rsync.sh
index b27ad07..3894c4a 100644
--- a/Rsync/rsync.sh
+++ b/Rsync/rsync.sh
@@ -48,6 +48,14 @@ echo ""
 echo "━━━ $ICON_GEAR Setup ━━━"
 
 detect_hosts
+
+# Tier 1 global gate — check before doing anything
+# Tier 2 (per-orchestrator) is handled by the calling orchestrator
+# Direct calls to rsync.sh only check Tier 1
+if ! check_rsync_enabled; then
+    warn "RSYNC_ENABLED=false — exiting cleanly"
+    exit 0
+fi
 resolve_remote_ip
 
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/common.sh b/common.sh
index 976adc0..2865239 100644
--- a/common.sh
+++ b/common.sh
@@ -339,6 +339,45 @@ resolve_remote_ip() {
 # Pings remote and exits if unreachable.
 # For failover use ping_remote() which returns status without exiting.
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# check_rsync_enabled — two-tier rsync gate check
+# Tier 1: RSYNC_ENABLED — global, overrides everything
+# Tier 2: orchestrator-specific flag passed as argument
+#
+# Usage:
+#   check_rsync_enabled "DAILY"    ← checks RSYNC_ENABLED + DAILY_RSYNC_ENABLED
+#   check_rsync_enabled "WEEKLY"   ← checks RSYNC_ENABLED + WEEKLY_RSYNC_ENABLED
+#   check_rsync_enabled "FAILOVER" ← checks RSYNC_ENABLED + FAILOVER_RSYNC_ENABLED
+#   check_rsync_enabled            ← checks RSYNC_ENABLED only (rsync.sh direct call)
+#
+# Returns:
+#   0 = rsync enabled, proceed
+#   1 = rsync disabled, skip cleanly
+# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+check_rsync_enabled() {
+    local orchestrator="${1:-}"
+
+    # Tier 1 — global gate
+    if [[ "${RSYNC_ENABLED:-true}" == false ]]; then
+        warn "RSYNC_ENABLED=false — rsync globally disabled, skipping all syncs"
+        return 1
+    fi
+
+    # Tier 2 — per-orchestrator
+    if [[ -n "$orchestrator" ]]; then
+        local var_name="${orchestrator}_RSYNC_ENABLED"
+        local var_value="${!var_name:-true}"
+        if [[ "$var_value" == false ]]; then
+            info "${var_name}=false — rsync disabled for $orchestrator orchestrator"
+            info "All other $orchestrator jobs will still run normally"
+            return 1
+        fi
+    fi
+
+    return 0
+}
+
 check_connectivity() {
     log "Checking connectivity to $REMOTE_SERVER..."
     if ! ping -c1 -W3 "$REMOTE_SERVER" &>/dev/null; then