Claude Desktop App stuck in login loop with 'Invalid authorization' error

Found 2 possible duplicate issues:

1. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/18474
2. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/20136

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Also having the same issue with the Desktop App. Browser and Code work fine

+1 - Having issues with desktop app.

+1

Likewise

same

Just got the same issue today.

+1 for me on Claude Mac OS Desktop App, Am in version 1.1.3189(1b7b58) keep on looping on the cloudflare login page, browser works fine, restarted the machine still its same.

Followed the below steps, and its working fine now,

1. Uninstall Claude.app from Application, I did via terminal

rm -rf /Applications/Claude.app

1. Remove Cache, Application Support and preferences

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Claude rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.anthropic.claude.plist rm -rf ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.anthropic.claude.savedState rm -rf ~/Library/Logs/Claude

1. Restarted Mac
2. Downloaded fresh copy of Claude app & Installed
3. It worked.. !

Fix for Cloudflare login loop — preserving Cowork chats

Had the same issue (macOS, Cloudflare verification loop, app-specific — browser worked fine). Things that didn't work: changing DNS to Google (8.8.8.8), flushing DNS cache, tethering to mobile hotspot, deleting only Caches/Preferences/SavedState, or selectively clearing auth files (Cookies, Session Storage, Local Storage, etc.).

What did work was wiping ~/Library/Application Support/Claude — but with a backup step to preserve Cowork local chats:

# 1. Back up Cowork chats (stored only locally)
cp -r ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions ~/Desktop/cowork-backup

# 2. Wipe app data
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Claude

# 3. Cmd+Q Claude and reopen — login should work

# 4. Restore Cowork chats
cp -r ~/Desktop/cowork-backup ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions

No need to uninstall the app, restart the Mac, or re-download. All Cowork chat history was preserved.

Confirming @alexis-alem's solution works.

I have the same issue with ssh into remote instance.

Can confirm @alexis-alem's solution works.

Similar problem with Claude Code (CC) terminal frontend on Linux:

• me: Launch claude
• me: Log-in via browser
• CC: "Login successful. Press Enter to continue…"
• me: Enter
• CC: prompt
• me: whatsoever
• CC: "Your account does not have access to Claude Code. Please run /login."

Complete purge and reinstallation did not help.

Deleting and recreating the Team seat did not help.

Support request to support@mail.anthropic.com is answered by a clueless bot. After a couple of iterations, the bot mentioned the possibility of human intervention and fell silent. Now waiting since 10 days for a human @ Anthropic to respond.

I have the same issue with ssh into remote instance.

I had to install CLI version of the Claude in a terminal and run login there, then it started working in VS code,

Solution to my endless log-in logged-out loop, https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/22685#issuecomment-4030150382:

There was an environment variable CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN. Removing it solved the problem.

The lack of a clear error message is a severe bug of Claude Code.

Looks like there might be a regression in v1.1.7203 (034f07) — 2026-03-17.
The app fails to clear the sessionKey cookie on logout, causing an auth loop on re-login.

Environment

• App version: 1.1.7203 (034f07), 2026-03-17T17:48:28.000Z
• Platform: macOS (darwin, arm64)

Reproduction

1. Log out of Claude Desktop
2. App redirects to https://claude.ai/login?from=logout
3. Log back in
4. App enters an infinite auth loop — never reaches the main UI

Log sequence from ~/Library/Logs/Claude/main.log

  Identity changed (loggedOut: true → false, uuid: <none> → <uuid>)                                                     
  [oauth] performing fresh oauth exchange for orgId=<orgId>                                                             
  oauth failed: no sessionKey cookie found                                                                              
  [oauth] failed to obtain oauth token (not_logged_in): no sessionKey cookie found                                      
  [RemotePluginManager] Sync failed: Failed to fetch auto-installed plugins (HTTP 403)                                  
  Failed to fetch skills list: 403 {"error":{"type":"permission_error","message":"Invalid                               
  authorization","details":{"error_code":"account_session_invalid"}}}                                                   
  Cannot get base query config: oauth failed (not_logged_in): no sessionKey cookie found                                
  Identity changed (loggedOut: false → true, uuid: <uuid> → <none>)                                                     

This cycle repeats indefinitely. The app detects an account, attempts OAuth, finds no valid session cookie, gets 403,
logs out, and starts over.

Workaround:

Deleting the cookie store breaks the loop:
```

Quit Claude Desktop first

rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/Cookies
rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/Cookies-journal

Relaunch and log in

 
This must be repeated every time you log out — the logout flow consistently leaves the cookie store in a broken state.
No stale env vars (CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN etc.) are present.

Looks like there might be a regression in v1.1.7203 (034f07) — 2026-03-17. The app fails to clear the sessionKey cookie on logout, causing an auth loop on re-login. Environment App version: 1.1.7203 (034f07), 2026-03-17T17:48:28.000Z Platform: macOS (darwin, arm64) Reproduction 1. Log out of Claude Desktop 2. App redirects to https://claude.ai/login?from=logout 3. Log back in 4. App enters an infinite auth loop — never reaches the main UI Log sequence from ~/Library/Logs/Claude/main.log `` Identity changed (loggedOut: true → false, uuid: <none> → <uuid>) [oauth] performing fresh oauth exchange for orgId=<orgId> oauth failed: no sessionKey cookie found [oauth] failed to obtain oauth token (not_logged_in): no sessionKey cookie found [RemotePluginManager] Sync failed: Failed to fetch auto-installed plugins (HTTP 403) Failed to fetch skills list: 403 {"error":{"type":"permission_error","message":"Invalid authorization","details":{"error_code":"account_session_invalid"}}} Cannot get base query config: oauth failed (not_logged_in): no sessionKey cookie found Identity changed (loggedOut: false → true, uuid: <uuid> → <none>) ` This cycle repeats indefinitely. The app detects an account, attempts OAuth, finds no valid session cookie, gets 403, logs out, and starts over. Workaround: Deleting the cookie store breaks the loop: ` # Quit Claude Desktop first rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/Cookies rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/Cookies-journal # Relaunch and log in `` This must be repeated every time you log out — the logout flow consistently leaves the cookie store in a broken state. No stale env vars (CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN etc.) are present.

This solution did not work for me.
I have
Claude 1.1.7714 (3bd6f6) 2026-03-19T14:50:53.000Z

I'm hesitant to rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude because my Claude Code CLI is still working. I don't know if it shares anything in the same directory. But Claude Desktop is still in login loop after deleting the cookies and cookies-journal.

I'm hesitant to rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude because my Claude Code CLI is still working. I don't know if it shares anything in the same directory. But Claude Desktop is still in login loop after deleting the cookies and cookies-journal.

What do your logs look like during the loop?
~/Library/Logs/Claude/main.log

Very strange. I waited 30mins and Claude Desktop is running again without the infinite login loop 🤯

Running unset CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN did the trick for me. Very frustrating bug.

This is happening for me on Windows. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/59803

I've tried the following, and all failed to resolve:

1. Uninstall and reinstall the Claude Desktop app
2. Checked for CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN environment variable — not present
3. Deleted cookie store only (%APPDATA%\Claude\Cookies and Cookies-journal)
4. Full wipe of app data (%APPDATA%\Claude, %LOCALAPPDATA%\Claude, %LOCALAPPDATA%\AnthropicClaude)
5. Ran Claude Desktop as Administrator
6. Tried both Google OAuth and email/magic link login — both fail the same way
7. No VPN active during attempts

I was also experiencing this issue on Windows and Firefox.
After trying a few things that didn't work, I was finally able to resolve it on this machine by disabling the ClearURLs browser extension. turns out having this extension enabled prevents secure links from working.

I was also experiencing this issue on Windows and Firefox. After trying a few things that didn't work, I was finally able to resolve it on this machine by disabling the ClearURLs browser extension. turns out having this extension enabled prevents secure links from working.

OMG this works finally, save my day!!

I was also experiencing this issue on Windows and Firefox. After trying a few things that didn't work, I was finally able to resolve it on this machine by disabling the ClearURLs browser extension. turns out having this extension enabled prevents secure links from working.

this solved my issue too, thanks!

I was also experiencing this issue on Windows and Firefox. After trying a few things that didn't work, I was finally able to resolve it on this machine by disabling the ClearURLs browser extension. turns out having this extension enabled prevents secure links from working.

That helps! I successfully verified my account after disabling all the extensions that might have VPN functionality.

I am having this issue as well.

Several other people observed that removing the "CleanURLs" browser extension resolved this problem, which I have also confirmed. This has been confirmed to be a bug in CleanURLs. Issue https://github.com/ClearURLs/Addon/issues/510 is tracking the bug and PR https://github.com/ClearURLs/Addon/pull/514 has been opened to fix it: please go upvote those.