diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d98bbb8581..957b25a38d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - Icon-only buttons announced as nothing by VoiceOver across the data grid, row inspector, editor find bar, filter bar, structure, dashboard and settings.
 - Status icons that carried a result only as a symbol and a colour, silent to VoiceOver, in the AWS and app import steps and the plugin lists.
 - Foreign key picker rows that could only be chosen with a mouse.
+- No label and no working search in the foreign key picker on a SQLite table whose columns are declared without a type.
 - SQLite foreign keys written `REFERENCES parent` with no column list pointing at a column the parent does not have, in the object browser, the ER diagram and the JSON inspector.
 - Preview Referenced Row on iPhone and iPad building its filter by hand, so a value holding a backslash could reach the server as SQL. (#2996)
 - The referenced key column offered as a label in the foreign key picker, where choosing it showed no label at all.
diff --git a/TablePro/Models/Schema/ForeignKeyLookupColumn.swift b/TablePro/Models/Schema/ForeignKeyLookupColumn.swift
index e092be6896..fe37b6b27a 100644
--- a/TablePro/Models/Schema/ForeignKeyLookupColumn.swift
+++ b/TablePro/Models/Schema/ForeignKeyLookupColumn.swift
@@ -21,11 +21,31 @@ struct ForeignKeyLookupColumn: Equatable, Sendable, Identifiable {
     /// question is asked of the raw type name and answered closed: a name that is not a known
     /// character type carries no pattern predicate, which costs a search rather than an error on
     /// every search.
+    ///
+    /// A column that declares no type at all is the one open answer, and it is not a gap in the
+    /// list. Only a dynamically typed engine reports one: `create table t(a, b)` is legal SQLite
+    /// and `PRAGMA table_xinfo` gives back a zero-length type for it, measured on 3.54.0, while
+    /// every strict engine always names a type. `LIKE` is defined on every column there, measured
+    /// on the same build, so an undeclared column takes a predicate and can be a label. Reading it
+    /// as unknown instead left a hand-written SQLite database with no label anywhere and no way to
+    /// search one.
     var supportsPatternMatch: Bool {
-        guard case .text = type, let base = Self.baseTypeName(of: type.rawType) else { return false }
+        guard case .text = type else { return false }
+        guard let base = Self.baseTypeName(of: type.rawType) else { return declaresNoType }
         return Self.characterTypeNames.contains(base)
     }
 
+    /// True when the engine answered with a type and that type was empty, which is how SQLite
+    /// reports a column declared without one.
+    ///
+    /// A missing `rawType` is deliberately not this. That is the app having no type information at
+    /// all, which several of its own conversions produce, and reading it as "the engine declared
+    /// nothing" would hand a pattern predicate to a column nobody has typed.
+    var declaresNoType: Bool {
+        guard let rawType = type.rawType else { return false }
+        return rawType.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespaces).isEmpty
+    }
+
     /// The declared type as the reader sees it beside the column's name, or nothing when the
     /// engine declares none: SQLite accepts `create table t(a, b)`, and an empty string reads as a
     /// missing word rather than as a column with no type.
diff --git a/TableProTests/Models/Schema/ForeignKeyLookupColumnTests.swift b/TableProTests/Models/Schema/ForeignKeyLookupColumnTests.swift
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..41e88b1968
--- /dev/null
+++ b/TableProTests/Models/Schema/ForeignKeyLookupColumnTests.swift
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+//
+//  ForeignKeyLookupColumnTests.swift
+//  TablePro
+//
+
+import Foundation
+import Testing
+
+@testable import TablePro
+
+/// `supportsPatternMatch` decides both which columns the foreign key picker offers as a label on
+/// its own and which ones carry the search. It answers a closed list of character type names,
+/// because `ColumnTypeClassifier` files everything it does not recognise under `.text` and a `LIKE`
+/// against a `uuid`, an enum or an array is an error on PostgreSQL rather than an empty result.
+@Suite("ForeignKeyLookupColumn")
+struct ForeignKeyLookupColumnTests {
+    private func column(_ rawType: String?) -> ForeignKeyLookupColumn {
+        ForeignKeyLookupColumn(name: "c", type: .text(rawType: rawType))
+    }
+
+    @Test("A character type carries a pattern predicate")
+    func characterTypesMatch() {
+        for rawType in ["TEXT", "VARCHAR(64)", "nvarchar(10)", "CITEXT", "LONGTEXT"] {
+            #expect(column(rawType).supportsPatternMatch, "\(rawType) should pattern match")
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test("A type the classifier only guessed at carries none")
+    func guessedTypesDoNotMatch() {
+        for rawType in ["uuid", "inet", "money", "tsvector"] {
+            #expect(!column(rawType).supportsPatternMatch, "\(rawType) should not pattern match")
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test("A type that is not text carries none")
+    func nonTextTypesDoNotMatch() {
+        #expect(!ForeignKeyLookupColumn(name: "c", type: .integer(rawType: "INTEGER")).supportsPatternMatch)
+        #expect(!ForeignKeyLookupColumn(name: "c", type: .date(rawType: "DATE")).supportsPatternMatch)
+        #expect(!ForeignKeyLookupColumn(name: "c", type: .decimal(rawType: "NUMERIC")).supportsPatternMatch)
+    }
+
+    /// `create table t(a, b)` is legal SQLite and common in hand-written databases. Measured on
+    /// 3.54.0: `PRAGMA table_xinfo` answers a zero-length type for such a column, and `LIKE`
+    /// against it works. Reading the empty type as unknown left every column of that table
+    /// unlabelled and unsearchable, with the picker listing bare keys and no way to say why.
+    @Test("A column the engine declared with no type carries a predicate")
+    func undeclaredTypeMatches() {
+        #expect(column("").supportsPatternMatch)
+        #expect(column("   ").supportsPatternMatch)
+        #expect(column("").declaresNoType)
+        #expect(column("   ").declaresNoType)
+    }
+
+    /// Several of the app's own conversions build a column with no type information at all. That
+    /// is not an engine saying "this column has no declared type", and it must not become a
+    /// predicate on a strict engine.
+    @Test("A column with no type information at all is left alone")
+    func missingTypeIsNotAnUndeclaredType() {
+        #expect(!column(nil).supportsPatternMatch)
+        #expect(!column(nil).declaresNoType)
+    }
+
+    @Test("A declared type is still reported for display, and an empty one is not")
+    func displayTypeNameFollowsTheDeclaration() {
+        #expect(column("TEXT").displayTypeName == "TEXT")
+        #expect(column("").displayTypeName == nil)
+        #expect(column(nil).displayTypeName == nil)
+    }
+
+    /// The reporter's shape: a parent whose every column is untyped had no label to offer.
+    @Test("An untyped table offers its first non-key column as a label")
+    func untypedTableStillGetsALabel() {
+        let columns = [
+            ForeignKeyLookupColumn(name: "marchio", type: .text(rawType: "")),
+            ForeignKeyLookupColumn(name: "nome", type: .text(rawType: "")),
+        ]
+        let resolved = ForeignKeyLabelColumn.resolve(
+            columns: columns, keyColumn: "marchio", choice: .unset
+        )
+        #expect(resolved.map(\.name) == ["nome"])
+    }
+}