Both /compact command and auto-compaction broken - 'conversation too long' error

The web version on claude.ai is acting up. Also see this error. I havent seen any compactions at all today. I also have seen another error (i dont have a screenshot) saying too many attachments.

"Your message will exceed the length limit for this chat. Try shortening your message or starting a new conversation."

<img width="575" height="119" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/697bd4f6-4c90-4db9-8aa5-7e9eed340f98" />

Only happens in 2.1.7. If you rollback to 2.1.4 it works

Same issue with Claude AI on the web.

Wtf are Anthropic doing? First they have a long system outage, and now they've vibe coded a fix that broke compacting. Super frustrating and incompetent approach, especially at the prices we're paying.

Still having issues.. very frustrating considering I'm paying for 2x $200 a month accounts and they are both useless right now.

Claude has been unusable basically for the past two days. First with the general global outage that took hours to resolve, and now with this. They should compensate with additional credits, etc., find some way to make it up to users, especially Max subscribers. This is just unacceptable.

They opened an incident on Claude Status and seems they're releasing a patch

Not sure if web is fixed or different issue. I dont get the error anymore on claude.ai, but it just does "nothing" now. If i turn off thinking i get further.

I'm now having the exact same problem as @dwight000. I write a prompt, attach a few screenshots, and then I press enter. For a brief moment it looks like my prompt is getting processed, but then my prompt is just hanging there in the text box again, waiting to be sent. Nothing's happening, except I get a "conversation not found" red popup. This is just very odd. Claude has become a completely unusable product for the last three days. This is just crazy...

I finally sent a ticket into @.*** to see if I can get some
resolution. I'm having similar issues. Claude will be in the middle of
working on something, I'll step away for a minute or two and come back and
all the steps, the chat, everything is just gone. My only solution has been
telling Claude to create a transcript and update it after every step so he
knows where to pick back up from.

On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 10:10 PM GaijinEagle @.***>
wrote:

aconcepcion left a comment (anthropics/claude-code#18211) <https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/18211#issuecomment-3757904056> I'm now having the exact same problem as @dwight000 <https://github.com/dwight000>. I write a prompt, attach a few screenshots, and then I press enter. For a brief moment it looks like my prompt is getting processed, but then my prompt is just hanging there in the text box again, waiting to be sent. Nothing's happening. This is just very odd. Claude has become a completely unusable product for the last three days. This is just crazy... — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/18211#issuecomment-3757904056>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AB323OJQ6AKZFXUJHINBHVD4HBJA3AVCNFSM6AAAAACRW2XH2SVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTONJXHEYDIMBVGY> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: @.***>

--
Sincerely,

Vantz M. Stockwell
704-931-8324

Confirming this is still reproducible and matches my experience.

After auto-compaction triggers once:

• subsequent prompts silently fail (revert to draft, no generation)
• occurs across web, desktop, and iOS
• also reproducible in brand-new conversations after their first compaction
• attachments worsen the failure (prompt never submits)

This looks like conversation-state corruption caused by the compaction pipeline, not a client issue.

I previously filed #18482, which appears to be a duplicate of this issue.

+1 for what @dwight000 reported.

I've been having the same issue since the compaction problem was flagged as "fixed". I send messages in claude.ai and they bounce back to the typing box. There's no error about limits reached or anything, but testing the same thing on the mobile app does return the limits error.

Disabling Thinking lets me keep sending messages but eventually it hits the problem too.

Same here... My chats are hitting the limit way too fast and just 'refuse' to go any further. The only difference is that unlike 2 days ago, I don't even get a notification saying I've reached the limit anymore.

The messages just don't go through. That's it.

Great 'fix' guys

We just landed a fix to Claude Code in v2.1.11 to fix a broken interaction between MCP and compaction. Please update to the latest build with claude update. If you still see issues on the new build, please file a new bug report. Thank you for the reports of this issue!

Estou com o mesmo problema aqui, só existem duas opções validas, ou é um bug que quebra a confiança no produto ou é uma estratégia pra que eles tenham mais dominancia em construção de projetos longos, nos dois casos é uma mancha de reputação dificil de consertar, claude perdeu o encanto

I am also getting errors with compaction on the website version claude.ai, except there is no error message box or anything. It just does not respond when I send a chat message. This doesn't seem to be fixed. I am a paid user, and this is severely hampering my work when using claude for coding.

Same behavior has returned to Claude AI Chat desktop (v 1.1.351 (648bf5) 2026-01-16T23:53:30.000Z). After attempting to enter a prompt, the Claude icon pulses once and then nothing. There is no error message.

+1 about Claude.ai (Chat) still having a broken auto-compact.

It's been broken since the major outage, even though it's flagged as fixed. And obviously the new Claude Code version doesn't fix this problem on the Chat tool.

@rboyce-ant Please have someone look into this. Claude.ai Chat users have been unable to use the service properly since January 14. It's been 4 days and we've been left in the dark about this.

The same issue. I paid $200 per month and I can't continue my work, and @rboyce-ant closed the unresolved issue without any testing. Brilliant!

Still happening on Desktop and web versions of Claude (Max plan) for me. Very frustrating, as most chats get auto-compacted way faster than they typically used to, and then my chats just stall out after a handful of messages and it just won't let me progress further in the conversation. When I attempt to send a message, it just disappears, and I get stuck on the bouncing claude logo, with no reply.

Upvote this issue since this one is closed:
https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/18866

Honestly, this isn't fixed in the godsdamn slightest. At least an update would be wonderful, and an assurance that we're not going to have another six days of this shit. I mean come on.

Make CLAUDE CODE great again!

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.