diff --git a/src/helpers/MorseSettings.h b/src/helpers/MorseSettings.h
index b33fd78ea..fbc710483 100644
--- a/src/helpers/MorseSettings.h
+++ b/src/helpers/MorseSettings.h
@@ -34,26 +34,21 @@ inline uint32_t morseSettingsCRC(const uint8_t* data, size_t size) {
 inline void encodeMorseSettings(const MorseSettings& prefs,
                                 uint8_t (&image)[MorseSettingsImageSize]) {
   image[0] = 'M'; image[1] = 'C'; image[2] = 1; image[3] = prefs.wpm;
-  for (unsigned i = 0; i < 4; ++i)
-    image[4 + i] = uint8_t(prefs.frequency_khz >> (i * 8));
+  storage::writeLE32(image + 4, prefs.frequency_khz);
   const uint32_t crc = morseSettingsCRC(image, 8);
-  for (unsigned i = 0; i < 4; ++i) image[8 + i] = uint8_t(crc >> (i * 8));
+  storage::writeLE32(image + 8, crc);
 }
 
 inline bool decodeMorseSettings(const uint8_t* image, size_t size,
                                 MorseSettings& prefs) {
   if (!image || size != MorseSettingsImageSize || image[0] != 'M'
       || image[1] != 'C' || image[2] != 1) return false;
-  uint32_t frequency = 0, crc = 0;
-  for (unsigned i = 0; i < 4; ++i) {
-    frequency |= uint32_t(image[4 + i]) << (i * 8);
-    crc |= uint32_t(image[8 + i]) << (i * 8);
-  }
+  const uint32_t crc = morseSettingsCRC(image, 8);
+  if (crc != storage::readLE32(image + 8)) return false;
   MorseSettings candidate;
-  candidate.frequency_khz = frequency;
+  candidate.frequency_khz = storage::readLE32(image + 4);
   candidate.wpm = image[3];
-  if (crc != morseSettingsCRC(image, 8) || !validMorseSettings(candidate))
-    return false;
+  if (!validMorseSettings(candidate)) return false;
   prefs = candidate;
   return true;
 }
diff --git a/src/helpers/PersistentStoreFormat.h b/src/helpers/PersistentStoreFormat.h
index cbc788a68..d9e041b5b 100644
--- a/src/helpers/PersistentStoreFormat.h
+++ b/src/helpers/PersistentStoreFormat.h
@@ -131,8 +131,8 @@ inline void writeLE32(uint8_t* dest, uint32_t value) {
 inline uint32_t updateCRC32(uint32_t crc, const uint8_t* data, size_t len) {
   while (len-- > 0) {
     crc ^= *data++;
-    for (uint8_t bit = 0; bit < 8; bit++) {
-      crc = (crc >> 1) ^ ((crc & 1) ? 0xEDB88320UL : 0);
+    for (unsigned bit = 0; bit < 8; bit++) {
+      crc = (crc >> 1) ^ (0xEDB88320UL & (0U - (crc & 1U)));
     }
   }
   return crc;
diff --git a/test/test_morse_cli.py b/test/test_morse_cli.py
index 2c2bf625b..2d25802ba 100644
--- a/test/test_morse_cli.py
+++ b/test/test_morse_cli.py
@@ -11,6 +11,37 @@ ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1]
 
 
 class MorseCLITests(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_settings_codec_matches_independent_images_and_unaligned_input(self):
+        cases = []
+        for frequency in (100000, 0x020304, 902321, 1000000):
+            for speed in (1, 25, 60):
+                prefix = b"MC\x01" + bytes([speed]) + frequency.to_bytes(4, "little")
+                golden = prefix + (zlib.crc32(prefix) ^ 0xffffffff).to_bytes(4, "little")
+                cases.append("{%d,%d,{%s}}" % (
+                    frequency, speed, ",".join(str(byte) for byte in golden)))
+        code = r'''
+#include <helpers/MorseSettings.h>
+#include <cassert>
+struct Case { uint32_t frequency; uint8_t speed; uint8_t expected[12]; };
+int main() {
+  const Case cases[] = {@CASES@};
+  for (const auto& item : cases) {
+    mesh::MorseSettings prefs;
+    prefs.frequency_khz = item.frequency; prefs.wpm = item.speed;
+    uint8_t encoded[mesh::MorseSettingsImageSize];
+    mesh::encodeMorseSettings(prefs, encoded);
+    assert(memcmp(encoded, item.expected, sizeof(encoded)) == 0);
+    alignas(4) uint8_t unaligned[13];
+    memcpy(unaligned + 1, item.expected, sizeof(item.expected));
+    mesh::MorseSettings decoded;
+    assert(mesh::decodeMorseSettings(unaligned + 1, sizeof(item.expected), decoded));
+    assert(decoded.frequency_khz == item.frequency && decoded.wpm == item.speed);
+  }
+}
+'''.replace("@CASES@", ",".join(cases))
+        fs_mock = (ROOT / "test/fixtures/radio_profiles/mocks/helpers/IdentityStore.h").read_text(encoding="ascii")
+        compile_run(self, code, headers={"helpers/IdentityStore.h": fs_mock})
+
     def test_exact_shared_handler_strict_arguments_bounded_replies_and_rollback(self):
         code = (ROOT / "test/fixtures/morse_cli.cpp").read_text(encoding="ascii")
         fs_mock = (ROOT / "test/fixtures/radio_profiles/mocks/helpers/IdentityStore.h").read_text(encoding="ascii")
diff --git a/test/test_persistent_store_format/test_persistent_store_format.cpp b/test/test_persistent_store_format/test_persistent_store_format.cpp
index bef87b2ad..083603ea6 100644
--- a/test/test_persistent_store_format/test_persistent_store_format.cpp
+++ b/test/test_persistent_store_format/test_persistent_store_format.cpp
@@ -36,6 +36,33 @@ TEST(PersistentStoreFormat, CRCDetectsPayloadChanges) {
   EXPECT_EQ(split, expected);
 }
 
+TEST(PersistentStoreFormat, CRCMatchesIndependentVectorsAndEverySplit) {
+  EXPECT_EQ(updateCRC32(0xFFFFFFFFUL, nullptr, 0), 0xFFFFFFFFUL);
+  EXPECT_EQ(updateCRC32(0x12345678UL, nullptr, 0), 0x12345678UL);
+  const uint8_t check[] = "123456789";
+  EXPECT_EQ(updateCRC32(0xFFFFFFFFUL, check, sizeof(check) - 1),
+            0x340BC6D9UL);
+
+  uint8_t payload[256];
+  for (unsigned i = 0; i < sizeof(payload); ++i) payload[i] = uint8_t(i);
+  // Independent Python zlib vectors, converted to the store's no-final-xor
+  // convention: zlib.crc32(payload, seed ^ 0xffffffff) ^ 0xffffffff.
+  const struct { uint32_t seed, expected; } vectors[] = {
+      {0xFFFFFFFFUL, 0xD6FA738CUL},
+      {0x00000000UL, 0x2493092BUL},
+      {0x12345678UL, 0x8906DCD5UL},
+  };
+  for (const auto& vector : vectors) {
+    EXPECT_EQ(updateCRC32(vector.seed, payload, sizeof(payload)),
+              vector.expected);
+    for (size_t split = 0; split <= sizeof(payload); ++split) {
+      uint32_t crc = updateCRC32(vector.seed, payload, split);
+      crc = updateCRC32(crc, payload + split, sizeof(payload) - split);
+      EXPECT_EQ(crc, vector.expected);
+    }
+  }
+}
+
 TEST(PersistentStoreFormat, OccupancyCanBeDerivedFromCrcProtectedRecords) {
   uint8_t empty[CONTACT_RECORD_SIZE] = {};
   EXPECT_FALSE(contactRecordHasData(empty));