Abstract: To investigate the effects of salt concentrations and drying times on the quality and microbial community of lightly-salted golden pomfret, changes in quality indices (e.g., biogenic amines and volatile flavor compounds) and bacterial communities in samples subjected to salting with 3%, 4%, and 5% salt concentrations followed by cold air drying for 0, 18, and 36 h, respectively, were analyzed, and the correlation between quality indices and bacterial composition was explored. The results showed that the thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) content increased with increasing salt concentration and prolonged drying time, and the total viable count (TVC), total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N), TBARS, putrescine, histamine, cadaverine, and total biogenic amines significantly increased (P<0.05). Notably, the histamine content in the 36 h-dried group exceeded the maximum recommended limit (>50 mg/kg), posing a safety risk. Volatile flavor compound analysis revealed that aldehydes, alcohols, and ketones were the primary volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in lightly-salted golden pomfret, and 14 differential flavor compounds screened via partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) could be used to effectively distinguish samples with different drying times. High-throughput sequencing indicated that Lactococcus, Pseudomonas, and Acinetobacter were the dominant genera present during processing. Pearson correlation analysis demonstrated that Morganella was significantly positively correlated with tryptamine, putrescine, and cadaverine (P<0.05). Pseudomonas was significantly positively correlated with nitrite (P<0.05), and Acinetobacter was significantly positively correlated with 3-methyl-3-buten-1-ol and 3-pentanone (P<0.01). In conclusion, the safety and quality of lightly-salted golden pomfret could be effectively improved by shortening the cold-air drying time, thereby providing a theoretical basis and technical support for product development and quality control.