diff --git a/BlenderPanel/vfxreview_submit.py b/BlenderPanel/vfxreview_submit.py
index e6ca717..1530fc2 100644
--- a/BlenderPanel/vfxreview_submit.py
+++ b/BlenderPanel/vfxreview_submit.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 bl_info = {
     "name": "VFXReview — Submit Render",
     "author": "Two Tales",
-    "version": (1, 0, 1),
+    "version": (1, 0, 2),
     "blender": (3, 6, 0),
     "location": "Properties > Output > VFXReview",
     "description": "Queue this .blend on the studio render farm instead of rendering locally",
@@ -101,12 +101,28 @@ def api_request(path, payload=None, method="GET"):
 
 _project_cache = []
 
+# Blender does not copy the strings an EnumProperty callback returns — Python
+# must keep a reference to them or the UI renders freed memory, which shows up
+# as garbled labels rather than as a crash. So the items are built once when the
+# project list changes and held here; the callback only ever returns this list.
+_enum_items = [("", "Refresh projects...", "")]
+
+
+def rebuild_enum_items():
+    global _enum_items
+    if _project_cache:
+        _enum_items = [
+            (p["code"], "%s - %s" % (p["code"], p["name"]), "")
+            for p in _project_cache
+        ]
+    else:
+        _enum_items = [("", "Refresh projects...", "")]
+    return _enum_items
+
 
 def project_items(self, context):
-    """Project dropdown. Cached because Blender calls this on every redraw."""
-    if not _project_cache:
-        return [("", "Refresh projects…", "")]
-    return [(p["code"], "%s — %s" % (p["code"], p["name"]), "") for p in _project_cache]
+    """Called on every redraw, so it does no work and allocates nothing."""
+    return _enum_items
 
 
 # ── Scene → job ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
@@ -142,6 +158,7 @@ class VFXR_OT_refresh_projects(Operator):
             return {"CANCELLED"}
 
         _project_cache = data.get("projects", [])
+        rebuild_enum_items()
         self.report({"INFO"}, "%d project(s) loaded" % len(_project_cache))
         return {"FINISHED"}