diff --git a/tools/dev-deploy/docker-compose.yml b/tools/dev-deploy/docker-compose.yml
index a6e4e67..5a449df 100644
--- a/tools/dev-deploy/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/tools/dev-deploy/docker-compose.yml
@@ -125,11 +125,7 @@ services:
         target: ${GALAXY_DEV_GAME_STATE_DIR}
         bind:
           create_host_path: true
-      # The GeoIP database is baked into the backend image (see
-      # tools/local-dev/backend.Dockerfile); a bind-mount is not used
-      # here because the source path resolves inside the runner
-      # workspace volume and the host Docker daemon cannot see it,
-      # which produced an "is a directory" error in CI.
+      - ../../pkg/geoip/test-data/test-data/GeoIP2-Country-Test.mmdb:/var/lib/galaxy/geoip.mmdb:ro
     networks:
       - galaxy-internal
     healthcheck:
diff --git a/tools/local-dev/backend.Dockerfile b/tools/local-dev/backend.Dockerfile
index 01e5898..1cd01c3 100644
--- a/tools/local-dev/backend.Dockerfile
+++ b/tools/local-dev/backend.Dockerfile
@@ -24,16 +24,6 @@ COPY pkg/transcoder/ ./pkg/transcoder/
 COPY pkg/util/       ./pkg/util/
 COPY backend/        ./backend/
 
-# Bake the GeoIP test database into the build context so downstream
-# stages can copy it into the runtime image. The path is the
-# `MaxMind-DB` git submodule under `pkg/geoip/test-data/`; the file is
-# the smallest country DB MaxMind publishes and is what every other
-# dev-stack uses. Baking it lets dev-deploy skip the bind-mount that
-# fails on runner-workspace volumes the host Docker daemon cannot see.
-RUN mkdir -p /out/var/lib/galaxy
-COPY pkg/geoip/test-data/test-data/GeoIP2-Country-Test.mmdb \
-     /out/var/lib/galaxy/geoip.mmdb
-
 RUN <<'EOF' cat > go.work
 go 1.26.2
 
@@ -77,6 +67,5 @@ EXPOSE 8080
 EXPOSE 8081
 
 COPY --from=builder /out/backend /usr/local/bin/backend
-COPY --from=builder /out/var/lib/galaxy/geoip.mmdb /var/lib/galaxy/geoip.mmdb
 
 ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/bin/backend"]