[BUG] Claude Desktop: Send button silently fails - message disappears when context is high
Open 💬 19 comments Opened Jan 16, 2026 by ThatDragonOverThere
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (amorriscode, contributor)
responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.
Description
When context usage is high (near compacting threshold), clicking the send button appears to work momentarily but then silently fails - the UI reverts to the state before sending, as if the message was never submitted. No error message is displayed.
Steps to Reproduce
- Use Claude Desktop until context usage is high (near auto-compact threshold)
- Type a message and click send (arrow button)
- Observe: UI "resolves" for a second, then reverts to pre-send state
- Message is gone, no error shown
Expected Behavior
Either:
- The message should send successfully, OR
- An error message should appear (e.g., "Context limit reached - /compact or /clear to continue")
Actual Behavior
- Send button click appears to work briefly
- UI then silently reverts to state before sending
- No message appears in conversation
- No error message displayed
- User left wondering what happened
Environment
- Platform: Windows
- Application: Claude Desktop (GUI app)
Notes
This may be related to context/compacting issues but the silent failure with no error is the core UX problem. Users should never have a message silently disappear without feedback.
Possibly Related Issues
- #17292 - Autocompact not triggering at high context usage
- #16937 - Chat rollbacks/disappearing responses (closed as dup of #10065)
- #18178 - Context percentage mismatch
19 Comments
Found 3 possible duplicate issues:
This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.
🤖 Generated with Claude Code
This is happening on the web as well. On mobile it does return the "limit reached" error, at least from my testing.
Seems like the auto compacting isn't working at all for Claude.ai, even though they flagged yesterday's issue as resolved.
Exactly same problem. Began after 14 jan downtime or after last client updates, im not sure. This is totally breaks chat, impossible to continue. Editing previous message and its resend it works, but next one fails again. This is critical bug which breaks almost all chats.
Few days ago there was problem with compacting, it's just not being triggired with message "conext limit reached. start new chat" (check status.claude.com) and anthropic fixed it, now it's triggering but silently fails. Maybe this fix is source of this new bug?
Same here! Break all my work right now!
happens alsreay for several days
Confirming this is reproducible - happened again within the same session. The silent failure occurs repeatedly when context is high. No error message, just the UI reverting as if send was never clicked.
This needs to be fixed as soon as possible. It's incredibly annoying. Bug is critical. Breaks almost every chat!
Also experiencing this on the iPhone app - same silent failure behavior. Send button appears to work briefly, then reverts as if nothing was sent. No error message. This is cross-platform, not just Desktop on Windows.
I had the same problem. Same problem on desktop, mobile (iOS) and web.
Is there a way to recover?
I've got the same problem while using Claude Desktop app on macOS and Claude Web on Safari. The thing is it seems there is no problem like this while using Claude Code in VSCode app. I'm not sure 100% but same issue persist in Xcode also.
PS: Resetting Mac not helping.
Another occurrence on Desktop. This is now the 4th instance reported in one session. Highly reproducible.
5th occurrence on Desktop. Happening repeatedly throughout the session.
6th occurrence on Desktop.
Built a tool to help when Claude.ai's context window fills up and auto-compaction fails - like in the instances the bug is describing.
What it does: Export your stuck chat as JSON → run the script → get a compressed handoff doc to bootstrap a new session (~90% compression with Smart mode).
GitHub: https://github.com/Phant0mass/claude-chat-handoff
Related issues:
#18676 (https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/18676)
#18866 (https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/18866)
Python, no pip deps, MIT license. Built entirely with the help of Claude.ai and Claude Code - Claude.ai helped to strategize the script; Claude Code wrote the script and supporting docs; reviewed and tested by me. Feel free to use or adapt as you see fit. Feedback welcome!
It is getting worse! Happens to me now even in new chats, with just 2 or 3 messages.
It´s happening for me since 20.1.´26 on Claude Desktop. Very frustrating issue, especially if you dealing with complex problem in your conversation. There is also no trace of this failure in logs.
Needed:
@Handwine Same for me, new record is just one message.
@erik-blasko I already suggested these features to support in claude desktop support chat few days ago, and they created ticked to developers with this.
Happens to me constantly on macOS. It's almost unusable after a few minutes of work. I'm questioning the value of the desktop version. Yes, it can access local files, but this bug happens so frequently that it cripples work constantly. I have decided to go back to the web version for now until the desktop version is fixed.
Taking a look at this, sorry folks.
Silent fails happening vor me on Mac Claude 1.3561.0 (fbc74b) 2026-04-20T14:59:51.000Z