diff --git a/crates/settings/src/document.rs b/crates/settings/src/document.rs
index d5c80025..4e0a16f6 100644
--- a/crates/settings/src/document.rs
+++ b/crates/settings/src/document.rs
@@ -36,18 +36,22 @@ pub fn new_document(version: u32) -> DocumentMut {
 /// is kept. This is what keeps a renamed enum variant from resetting the whole file.
 pub fn deserialize_sections<T: Settings>(doc: &DocumentMut) -> (T, Vec<SectionError>) {
     let defaults = T::default();
-    let Ok(mut merged) = toml_edit::ser::to_document(&defaults) else {
+    let Ok(base) = toml_edit::ser::to_document(&defaults) else {
         return (defaults, Vec::new());
     };
+    let mut merged = base.clone();
     let mut errors = Vec::new();
     for (key, item) in doc.iter() {
         if key == SCHEMA_VERSION_KEY {
             continue;
         }
-        let mut candidate = merged.clone();
+        // Each section is tried against the defaults alone, never against the sections accepted
+        // before it, so a file of many keys costs the defaults plus that key per key instead of
+        // the whole document so far.
+        let mut candidate = base.clone();
         candidate[key] = item.clone();
-        match toml_edit::de::from_document::<T>(candidate.clone()) {
-            Ok(_) => merged = candidate,
+        match toml_edit::de::from_document::<T>(candidate) {
+            Ok(_) => merged[key] = item.clone(),
             Err(e) => errors.push(SectionError { section: key.to_owned(), message: e.to_string() }),
         }
     }
diff --git a/crates/settings/tests/recovery.rs b/crates/settings/tests/recovery.rs
index 4af90bb4..437d18cf 100644
--- a/crates/settings/tests/recovery.rs
+++ b/crates/settings/tests/recovery.rs
@@ -47,6 +47,23 @@ fn bad_value_only_resets_its_section() {
     assert!(config_path(tmp.path()).exists(), "the file is not moved aside");
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn many_unknown_keys_load_in_linear_time() {
+    // Each key was once tried against every key accepted before it.
+    let tmp = tempfile::tempdir().unwrap();
+    let mut text = String::from("schema_version = 2\n");
+    for i in 0..20_000 {
+        text.push_str(&format!("unknown_{i} = \"{}\"\n", "x".repeat(64)));
+    }
+    text.push_str("[general]\nlanguage = \"de\"\n");
+    write_config(tmp.path(), &text);
+    let started = std::time::Instant::now();
+    let (store, report) = open_in(tmp.path());
+    assert!(report.section_errors.is_empty(), "{report:?}");
+    assert_eq!(store.get().general.language, "de");
+    assert!(started.elapsed() < std::time::Duration::from_secs(20), "{:?}", started.elapsed());
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn newer_schema_opens_read_only_and_never_overwrites() {
     let tmp = tempfile::tempdir().unwrap();