diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index 0232959d7..db17ef752 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ Fixes:
 - ``SubtitleCodecContext.decode(None)`` flushes the decoder instead of raising ``RuntimeError``, so delayed decoders such as EIA-608 closed captions return their final subtitle.
 - ``AudioFrame.planes`` no longer counts one plane too many for 8-channel planar audio (e.g. ``fltp`` with ``7.1``), which made ``planes``, ``to_ndarray()``, and ``from_ndarray()`` raise ``ValueError``, and no longer reads past the end of ``extended_data`` for more channels. By :gh-user:`ChandraChaan` in (:pr:`2502`).
 - ``AudioFifo.write()`` now raises ``ValueError`` for a frame whose channel layout differs from the first frame's, instead of reading the wrong number of channels and scrambling or over-reading the samples. By :gh-user:`ChandraChaan` in (:pr:`2505`).
+- A failed ``CodecContext.open()`` no longer clears the selected codec, so ``codec``, ``name``, ``is_encoder``, and ``is_decoder`` keep working and the context can be reused after fixing the offending parameters.
 
 v19.0.2
 -------
diff --git a/av/codec/context.py b/av/codec/context.py
index 8a27d979f..e3a3ec86e 100644
--- a/av/codec/context.py
+++ b/av/codec/context.py
@@ -412,6 +412,16 @@ def is_open(self):
 
     @cython.ccall
     def open(self, strict: cython.bint = True):
+        """open(strict=True)
+
+        Open the codec, readying the context to encode or decode.
+
+        The selected codec is preserved if opening fails, so the context stays
+        inspectable and can be retried after fixing the offending parameters.
+        FFmpeg's failed-open cleanup still resets other fields, though (notably
+        ``layout`` drops to 0 channels), so a retry must re-apply the parameters
+        that were set before the failed attempt.
+        """
         if lib.avcodec_is_open(self.ptr):
             if strict:
                 raise ValueError("CodecContext is already open.")
@@ -433,10 +443,15 @@ def open(self, strict: cython.bint = True):
 
         self._setup_encode_hwframes()
 
-        err_check(
-            lib.avcodec_open2(self.ptr, self.ptr.codec, cython.address(options.ptr)),
-            f'avcodec_open2("{self.ptr.codec.name}", {self.options})',
+        # AVCodec structs are static globals, so holding the pointer across the
+        # call is safe.
+        codec: cython.pointer[cython.const[lib.AVCodec]] = self.ptr.codec
+        ret: cython.int = lib.avcodec_open2(
+            self.ptr, codec, cython.address(options.ptr)
         )
+        if ret < 0:
+            self.ptr.codec = codec
+        err_check(ret, f'avcodec_open2("{codec.name}", {self.options})')
         self.options = dict(options)
 
     def __dealloc__(self):
diff --git a/tests/test_codec_context.py b/tests/test_codec_context.py
index 01384d1fd..ce1bb20cf 100644
--- a/tests/test_codec_context.py
+++ b/tests/test_codec_context.py
@@ -351,6 +351,30 @@ def test_parse_assigns_packet_timing(self) -> None:
         # so at least some packets should carry it through.
         assert any(p.pos is not None for p in packets)
 
+    def test_failed_open_preserves_codec(self) -> None:
+        # A failed avcodec_open2() runs FFmpeg's cleanup, which clears
+        # avctx->codec. open() must restore it so the context stays usable.
+        ctx = av.AudioCodecContext.create("aac", "w")
+        ctx.format = av.AudioFormat("s16")  # AAC wants fltp, so open() fails.
+        ctx.layout = "stereo"
+        ctx.sample_rate = 44100
+
+        with pytest.raises(av.error.FFmpegError):
+            ctx.open()
+
+        # The selected codec is still known after the failure.
+        assert ctx.codec is not None
+        assert ctx.codec.name == "aac"
+        assert ctx.is_encoder and not ctx.is_decoder
+        assert not ctx.is_open
+
+        # Fixing the offending parameters and retrying works on the same context.
+        ctx.format = av.AudioFormat("fltp")
+        ctx.layout = "stereo"
+        ctx.sample_rate = 44100
+        ctx.open()
+        assert ctx.is_open
+
 
 class TestEncoding(TestCase):
     def test_encoding_png(self) -> None: