diff --git a/src/audit.py b/src/audit.py
index 5c4956c..67daeed 100644
--- a/src/audit.py
+++ b/src/audit.py
@@ -55,6 +55,15 @@ _LOG_PATH: Path | None = None
 _SESSION_ID: str | None = None
 _SESSION_STARTED: bool = False
 
+# RESTORED kill switch — the async-writer redesign still triggers the
+# blank-pages symptom on the user's machine despite no synchronous
+# file I/O on the request path. Cause is not yet identified; keep all
+# log_* calls as no-ops while we diagnose so the GUI keeps working.
+# Diagnostic plan: ask the user for the launcher terminal output AND
+# whether anything appears in ``~/.datatools/logs/`` at all — that
+# bisects "writer thread starts" from "writer thread can't write."
+_DISABLED: bool = True
+
 # Bounded in-memory queue. ``deque(maxlen=N)`` drops the OLDEST entry
 # when full so the most-recent events are always the ones that
 # survive on disk — diagnostic-most-valuable at the moment of a
@@ -205,6 +214,8 @@ def log_event(
     Failures inside this function are swallowed; a broken audit log
     must never take the GUI down.
     """
+    if _DISABLED:
+        return
     try:
         try:
             ts = datetime.now(tz=timezone.utc).isoformat(timespec="milliseconds")
@@ -234,6 +245,8 @@ def log_event(
 
 def log_session_start() -> None:
     """Idempotent session-start banner with platform info."""
+    if _DISABLED:
+        return
     global _SESSION_STARTED
     with _LOCK:
         if _SESSION_STARTED:
@@ -260,6 +273,8 @@ def log_session_start() -> None:
 
 def log_page_open(slug: str) -> None:
     """Emit a deduplicated 'page open' nav event."""
+    if _DISABLED:
+        return
     try:
         try:
             import streamlit as st
@@ -298,6 +313,8 @@ def flush_audit_log(timeout_s: float = 0.5) -> None:
     stuck disk can never delay shutdown — events still in the queue
     when the timer expires are dropped.
     """
+    if _DISABLED:
+        return
     global _SHUTDOWN_REQUESTED
     deadline = time.monotonic() + max(0.0, timeout_s)
     with _QUEUE_COND:
diff --git a/src/gui/components/_legacy.py b/src/gui/components/_legacy.py
index 8de67af..69f79ee 100644
--- a/src/gui/components/_legacy.py
+++ b/src/gui/components/_legacy.py
@@ -158,17 +158,18 @@ def hide_streamlit_chrome(*, gate_license: bool = True) -> None:
         require_license_or_render_activation,
     )
     render_license_status_sidebar()
-    # Diagnostics sidebar re-enabled now that the audit log is async
-    # and ``audit_log_path()`` is a pure path computation (no mkdir
-    # on the request path). Still wrapped in try/except defensively;
-    # a render error here prints to stderr instead of taking down
-    # the page body.
-    try:
-        _render_diagnostics_sidebar()
-    except Exception:
-        import traceback, sys
-        print("DataTools: diagnostics sidebar render failed:", file=sys.stderr)
-        traceback.print_exc()
+    # Diagnostics sidebar is DISABLED — the async-writer redesign
+    # didn't actually fix the blank-pages symptom on the user's
+    # machine. The sidebar calls ``audit_log_path()`` which is pure
+    # now, so the failure mode must be elsewhere; keep this off
+    # while we diagnose so the user has a working GUI.
+    if False:
+        try:
+            _render_diagnostics_sidebar()
+        except Exception:
+            import traceback, sys
+            print("DataTools: diagnostics sidebar render failed:", file=sys.stderr)
+            traceback.print_exc()
     if gate_license:
         require_license_or_render_activation()