diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9479a12d5823..522c5826b93d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Docker E2E: dedupe scheduler lane resources so npm/service package lanes are not over-counted and serialized unnecessarily.
 - Crabbox: bootstrap Git metadata for sparse remote changed gates so raw synced workspaces can run `pnpm check:changed` from the intended diff.
 - xAI/LM Studio: avoid buffering ordinary bracketed or `final` prose until stream completion while watching for plain-text tool-call fallbacks.
+- Doctor: warn and continue when the cron job store exists but cannot be read (e.g. owned by another user with `0600` mode inside Docker) so later health checks still run. (#86102)
 - Discord: suppress a bot's previous reply body and referenced media from prompt context when a user replies to that bot message, while keeping reply metadata for routing. (#86238) Thanks @fuller-stack-dev.
 - Docker E2E: avoid rebuilding the Control UI twice while preparing the shared OpenClaw package tarball for package-backed scenario runs.
 - Tests: avoid rebuilding the Control UI twice during the installer Docker smoke now that `pnpm build` includes `ui:build`.
diff --git a/src/commands/doctor-cron.test.ts b/src/commands/doctor-cron.test.ts
index bdc32b942813..325e1bc0fafd 100644
--- a/src/commands/doctor-cron.test.ts
+++ b/src/commands/doctor-cron.test.ts
@@ -566,6 +566,29 @@ describe("maybeRepairLegacyCronStore", () => {
     expectNoteContaining("managed dreaming job", "Cron");
     expectNoteContaining("Rewrote 1 managed dreaming job", "Doctor changes");
   });
+
+  it("warns and continues when the cron job store cannot be read", async () => {
+    const storePath = await makeTempStorePath();
+    // Force loadCronStore to throw a non-ENOENT read error by placing a
+    // directory where the cron job store file would be. This mirrors the
+    // Docker-on-root permission failure reported in #86102 without depending
+    // on the test runner's effective uid (root bypasses chmod gates).
+    await fs.mkdir(path.dirname(storePath), { recursive: true });
+    await fs.mkdir(storePath);
+    const prompter = makePrompter(true);
+
+    await expect(
+      maybeRepairLegacyCronStore({
+        cfg: { cron: { store: storePath } },
+        options: {},
+        prompter,
+      }),
+    ).resolves.toBeUndefined();
+
+    expect(prompter.confirm).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expectNoteContaining("Unable to read cron job store at", "Cron");
+    expectNoteContaining("later health checks will continue", "Cron");
+  });
 });
 
 describe("legacy WhatsApp crontab health check", () => {
diff --git a/src/commands/doctor-cron.ts b/src/commands/doctor-cron.ts
index b0342f6d8220..970b2a0d69b8 100644
--- a/src/commands/doctor-cron.ts
+++ b/src/commands/doctor-cron.ts
@@ -335,7 +335,21 @@ export async function maybeRepairLegacyCronStore(params: {
   prompter: Pick<DoctorPrompter, "confirm">;
 }) {
   const storePath = resolveCronStorePath(params.cfg.cron?.store);
-  const store = await loadCronStore(storePath);
+  let store: Awaited<ReturnType<typeof loadCronStore>>;
+  try {
+    store = await loadCronStore(storePath);
+  } catch (err) {
+    const reason = err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err);
+    note(
+      [
+        `Unable to read cron job store at ${shortenHomePath(storePath)}.`,
+        `- ${reason}`,
+        `Fix the file's permissions or contents and re-run ${formatCliCommand("openclaw doctor")}; later health checks will continue.`,
+      ].join("\n"),
+      "Cron",
+    );
+    return;
+  }
   const rawJobs = (store.jobs ?? []) as unknown as Array<Record<string, unknown>>;
   if (rawJobs.length === 0) {
     return;