diff --git a/backend/src/main/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/importing/DocumentImporter.java b/backend/src/main/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/importing/DocumentImporter.java
index 528b9aa2..b85a8cc6 100644
--- a/backend/src/main/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/importing/DocumentImporter.java
+++ b/backend/src/main/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/importing/DocumentImporter.java
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ import software.amazon.awssdk.services.s3.model.PutObjectRequest;
 import org.raddatz.familienarchiv.tag.TagService;
 
 import java.io.File;
-import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.nio.file.Files;
@@ -79,6 +78,7 @@ public class DocumentImporter {
     private final TagService tagService;
     private final S3Client s3Client;
     private final ThumbnailAsyncRunner thumbnailAsyncRunner;
+    private final FileStreamOpener fileStreamOpener;
 
     @Value("${app.s3.bucket:familienarchiv}")
     private String bucketName;
@@ -349,13 +349,10 @@ public class DocumentImporter {
         return INDEX_PATTERN.matcher(index).matches();
     }
 
-    // package-private: a Mockito spy in tests can override to inject IOException
-    InputStream openFileStream(File file) throws IOException {
-        return new FileInputStream(file);
-    }
-
     private boolean isPdfMagicBytes(File file) throws IOException {
-        try (InputStream is = openFileStream(file)) {
+        // FileStreamOpener is injected so tests can stub a throwing implementation for the
+        // IO-error branch without spying on the importer itself.
+        try (InputStream is = fileStreamOpener.open(file)) {
             byte[] header = is.readNBytes(4);
             return header.length == 4
                     && header[0] == 0x25  // %
diff --git a/backend/src/main/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/importing/FileStreamOpener.java b/backend/src/main/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/importing/FileStreamOpener.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..aa4c2e50
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/src/main/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/importing/FileStreamOpener.java
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+package org.raddatz.familienarchiv.importing;
+
+import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+
+/**
+ * Test seam for opening a {@link File} as an {@link InputStream}. Extracted so the magic-byte
+ * check in {@link DocumentImporter} can be unit-tested for the IO-error branch by injecting a
+ * mock that throws, without needing a Mockito spy on the importer itself.
+ *
+ * <p>Production uses {@link DefaultFileStreamOpener}, a one-line delegate to
+ * {@code new FileInputStream(file)}.
+ */
+@FunctionalInterface
+public interface FileStreamOpener {
+
+    /** Opens {@code file} for sequential reads. Caller closes the returned stream. */
+    InputStream open(File file) throws IOException;
+
+    /** Default production implementation: plain {@code FileInputStream}. */
+    @Component
+    final class DefaultFileStreamOpener implements FileStreamOpener {
+
+        @Override
+        public InputStream open(File file) throws IOException {
+            return new FileInputStream(file);
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/backend/src/test/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/importing/DocumentImporterTest.java b/backend/src/test/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/importing/DocumentImporterTest.java
index c4e2ac77..c97de87b 100644
--- a/backend/src/test/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/importing/DocumentImporterTest.java
+++ b/backend/src/test/java/org/raddatz/familienarchiv/importing/DocumentImporterTest.java
@@ -49,12 +49,18 @@ class DocumentImporterTest {
     @Mock TagService tagService;
     @Mock S3Client s3Client;
     @Mock ThumbnailAsyncRunner thumbnailAsyncRunner;
+    @Mock FileStreamOpener fileStreamOpener;
 
     DocumentImporter importer;
 
     @BeforeEach
-    void setUp() {
-        importer = new DocumentImporter(documentService, personService, tagService, s3Client, thumbnailAsyncRunner);
+    void setUp() throws java.io.IOException {
+        // Default opener delegates to FileInputStream — tests that need to force an IOException
+        // override this stub locally (load_skipsFile_whenMagicByteCheckThrowsIoException).
+        lenient().when(fileStreamOpener.open(any(File.class)))
+                .thenAnswer(inv -> new java.io.FileInputStream(inv.getArgument(0, File.class)));
+        importer = new DocumentImporter(documentService, personService, tagService, s3Client,
+                thumbnailAsyncRunner, fileStreamOpener);
         ReflectionTestUtils.setField(importer, "bucketName", "test-bucket");
     }
 
@@ -305,11 +311,11 @@ class DocumentImporterTest {
         lenient().when(documentService.findByOriginalFilename(any())).thenReturn(Optional.empty());
         Path xlsx = writeDocs(tempDir, docRow("W-0001", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""));
 
-        DocumentImporter spyImporter = org.mockito.Mockito.spy(importer);
-        org.mockito.Mockito.doThrow(new java.io.IOException("read error"))
-                .when(spyImporter).openFileStream(any(File.class));
+        // FileStreamOpener is injected — stub it to throw, no spy on the importer needed.
+        org.mockito.Mockito.when(fileStreamOpener.open(any(File.class)))
+                .thenThrow(new java.io.IOException("read error"));
 
-        DocumentImporter.LoadResult result = spyImporter.load(xlsx.toFile());
+        DocumentImporter.LoadResult result = importer.load(xlsx.toFile());
 
         assertThat(result.skippedFiles())
                 .extracting(ImportStatus.SkippedFile::reason)