[BUG] I archived my Claude Cowork chats and they are nowhere to be found.

any resolution to this? I had the same problem

any resolution to this? I had the same problem :(

I had the same problem too

any resolution to this? I had the same problem too

no

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From: Tian @.*>
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Cc: SRMillerick @.>; Comment @.>
Subject: Re: [anthropics/claude-code] [BUG] I archived my Claude Cowork chats and they are nowhere to be found. (Issue #22931)

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any resolution to this? I had the same problem too

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Just went through this on a Mac - have not tested on windows, but you can find the CoWork files and unarchive them!

This command will list all JSON files for cowork that are archived, atleast on a mac, and you can go change isArchived from true to false in the file, restart Claude, and it comes back! :-)

find "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions" -name "local*.json" -exec grep -l '"isArchived":true\|"isArchived": true' {} \;

/Users/nickp/Library/Application Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions/b2df2d6d-87f4-4f18-968c-9ed97c22fb31/a1189ee4-8c6f-448a-9ae4-ec4c7dfd6ae6/local_8f5194d9-ab8a-42e3-a241-31afcdfe742d.json

cat "/Users/nickp/Library/Application Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions/b2df2d6d-87f4-4f18-968c-9ed97c22fb31/a1189ee4-8c6f-448a-9ae4-ec4c7dfd6ae6/local_8f5194d9-ab8a-42e3-a241-31afcdfe742d.json"  | grep Arch
  "isArchived": true,

Surely there'll be a similar thing for Windows as well.

Yeah, this appears to be an oversight in the UI/UX. Hopefully it gets fixed!

Same here. Hope it gets fixed soon, Cowork changed something on my Mac and I only found out that that change made another application unusable after I archived the chat. Now I have to figure out what Cowork exactly changed..

Additional finding: sessions invisible even when NOT archived

Forensic investigation on macOS reveals this is broader than the archive UI. Cowork sessions stored in local-agent-mode-sessions/ can become invisible even with isArchived: false.

Root cause: Two separate session managers coexist in the desktop app:

• LocalAgentModeSessions — manages Cowork sessions → writes to local-agent-mode-sessions/
• LocalSessions — manages Code tab sessions → writes to claude-code-sessions/

The Code tab sidebar only reads from claude-code-sessions/. If the Cowork tab doesn't surface a session (for any reason — scroll position, UI state, update), it effectively disappears. There's no unified session list across the two directories.

Key evidence:

• 23 Cowork sessions in local-agent-mode-sessions/ with isArchived: false, invisible in the UI
• The old directory is still being actively written to (new sessions created today, March 3 2026) — this is not a legacy migration issue, both systems run in parallel
• main.log confirms all 171 events for the affected session routed through LocalAgentModeSessions, with only 2 LocalSessions references (from a manual file copy to restore visibility)
• Session data is fully intact (transcripts, audit logs, uploads) — only the UI link is broken

Workaround (extends @nicko170's approach for the non-archived case):

Copying the session JSON metadata from the old directory to the new one makes them appear in the Code tab:

OLD="$HOME/Library/Application Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions"
NEW="$HOME/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code-sessions"

# Find your account/org subdirectory (same in both dirs)
ACCT_ORG=$(ls -d "$OLD"/*/* 2>/dev/null | head -1 | sed "s|$OLD/||")

for f in "$OLD/$ACCT_ORG"/local_*.json; do
    base=$(basename "$f")
    [ ! -f "$NEW/$ACCT_ORG/$base" ] && cp "$f" "$NEW/$ACCT_ORG/$base"
done

VM/Cowork sessions will show "Folder no longer exists" in the Code tab (since their cwd is a VM path like /sessions/...), but conversation history still loads from the server. Related: #29373.

Suggested fix: The app should either read from both directories, or run a migration on startup. The current state silently orphans user data.

Workaround for macOS — restore archived Cowork sessions via manual JSON edit

The archived session files are stored locally on your Mac. The UI bug prevents them from showing up, but the data is still there. Here's how to restore them:

Step 1: Find the session file

Each Cowork session has a local_{session-id}.json file in:

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions/

If you don't know the session ID, search by a keyword from the session title:

grep -rl "your keyword" ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions/ --include="*.json"

Step 2: Set isArchived to false

Replace the path with the one found in step 1:

python3 -c "
import json
path = '/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Library/Application Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions/{account-id}/{user-id}/local_{session-id}.json'
with open(path) as f:
    d = json.load(f)
d['isArchived'] = False
with open(path, 'w') as f:
    json.dump(d, f, indent=2)
print('Done! isArchived set to False.')
"

Step 3: Restart Claude Desktop

The session should now appear in the Cowork sidebar again.

---

Tested on macOS with Claude Desktop. The isArchived flag is correctly written to the JSON file when archiving, but the Cowork UI does not expose any way to view or restore archived sessions — hence this workaround.

I'm facing the same problem with the web interface and ios app. Once a project is archived there's no way to retrieve it afterwards.

Confirmed workaround: programmatic unarchive via Cowork session

Built a reusable workflow for this. The session JSON files live at:

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions/{account-id}/{user-id}/local_{session-id}.json

To find the right file by keyword (e.g., session title):

import json, glob, os

base = os.path.expanduser("~/Library/Application Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions")
for f in glob.glob(f"{base}/**/local_*.json", recursive=True):
    try:
        d = json.load(open(f))
        if "your keyword" in d.get("title", "").lower():
            print(f"{'ARCHIVED' if d.get('isArchived') else 'active':>8} | {d.get('title')} | {os.path.basename(f)}")
    except: pass

To unarchive:

import json
path = "/full/path/to/local_{session-id}.json"
with open(path) as f:
    d = json.load(f)
d["isArchived"] = False
with open(path, "w") as f:
    json.dump(d, f, indent=2)

Then Cmd+Q and relaunch Claude Desktop. Session reappears in sidebar.

Tested on macOS, Claude Desktop (Cowork mode). The isArchived flag is the only gate — no other state needs to change for the session to render again.

Well, I wish there was an option to delete as well, just archiving is not always suitable.

confirmed @ChrisLehnen workardound today (Claude 1.1.7714 (3bd6f6) 2026-03-19T14:50:53.000Z). location of json file was slightly different than described above, but it's essentially there.

this is nuts.

1. Claude "cowork" chooses its own folder ... even when importing an existing project. That's simply wrong.
2. When you archive to try to start again you get ... nothing. And no way to unarchive either. This is just broken. Pre-alpha level crap.

I built a GUI tool that lets you view, restore, and delete archived Cowork sessions from your browser.

It reads the session JSON files directly and provides a simple web UI to manage them — no manual JSON editing required.

Restore archived sessions (sets isArchived to false)
Permanently delete sessions you no longer need
Works on macOS, Windows, and Linux
No external dependencies (Python 3.8+ only)
Bilingual UI (English / Japanese)
https://github.com/SugaCrypto/cowork-archive-manager

Hope this helps until the bug is fixed!

I built a GUI tool that lets you view, restore, and delete archived Cowork sessions from your browser. It reads the session JSON files directly and provides a simple web UI to manage them — no manual JSON editing required. Restore archived sessions (sets isArchived to false) Permanently delete sessions you no longer need Works on macOS, Windows, and Linux No external dependencies (Python 3.8+ only) Bilingual UI (English / Japanese) https://github.com/SugaCrypto/cowork-archive-manager Hope this helps until the bug is fixed!

Thank you! It worked on my MacOS!!

cd ~/path/to/cowork-archive-manager
python3 cowork_archive_manager.py

Another victim of this unbelievably bad bug.

Just wanted to add another voice - 2X full months after it was first reported.,

Much work lost. Little faith remaining.

I can't believe this has gone on so long un-fixed.

It would make more sense to just re-label the "Archive" button to "Delete", so we don't have the illusion that these can be recovered.

@Genkilabs I wish it deleted the session, but it also keeps the underlying files.

@Genkilabs I wish it deleted the session, but it also keeps the underlying files.

Well, big thanks to SugaCrypto for his tool. It lets you either restore or fully delete. Bulk action too.

<img width="1024" height="925" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0d9fe2a8-602b-41a7-8411-3ad302151602" />

Incredibly backwards feature! No idea why this is approved in the first place. are yall trying to force new usage through this behavior? regardless, this needs to fixed

+1 on this bug. Same issue on Windows.
"Archive" by definition means storing for later retrieval — not permanently hiding with no recovery path. This is a fundamental UX failure: the action is named "Archive" but behaves like a soft delete without any interface to access the archived content.
What I expected: archived conversations to be accessible under an "Archived" section or filter, just like any email client (Gmail, Outlook) or note-taking app treats archives.
What actually happens: conversations disappear from the UI entirely with no way to view, restore, or even confirm they still exist.
This is especially problematic for Cowork sessions where ongoing work context is stored. Losing access to an archived session means losing track of prior decisions, file references, and task progress.
Minimum viable fix: expose a list of archived conversations (read-only access would already be a significant improvement). Full fix: add an unarchive/restore option.

To view archived chats in Cowork :
Open Cowork
Hover your mouse over "Recents" (left panel)
You will see "View All >" that will appear. Click on it.
From there you can view your "Archived" conversations
Problem: I wasn't able to un-archive a conversation that I archived by mistake.

Yep, I came here to say this. Just stumbled on it myself. This works.

Bug Report: "Archive" function in Cowork deletes projects instead of archiving them — no recovery possible

Related issues: #22931, #24534, #25304

---

Summary

When a project is archived in Claude Cowork (Windows), it disappears from the interface with no way to recover it. After a thorough investigation of the local file system, I confirmed that the archived status is not stored locally — suggesting that either the data is silently deleted or stored server-side with no accessible recovery interface. The result for the user is the same: archived projects are permanently lost.

---

Environment

• OS: Windows 11
• Claude Desktop (Cowork) — latest version available
• Installation path: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc\

---

Steps to reproduce

1. Create one or more projects in Claude Cowork
2. Archive a project using the in-app option
3. Observe that the project disappears from the interface
4. Attempt to find an "Archived" section or any recovery option — none exists
5. Attempt to recover the project by inspecting local files — not possible (see investigation below)

---

Investigation: local file system analysis

The session data is stored at:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\local-agent-mode-sessions\

Note: this path is not documented and differs from what is stated in third-party guides (%APPDATA%\Claude\ and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Claude\ do not exist on Windows).

A full recursive scan of all JSON files in this directory was performed using PowerShell (via subst to work around the 260-character path limit on Windows).

Findings:

• Only 2 active sessions were found locally, both with "isArchived": false
• A search for "isArchived": true returned zero results across all 177 JSON files
• A search for the string "archived" (case-insensitive) returned only the two active sessions, both with false
• The spaces.json file contains workspace configuration but no archive-related fields
• The cowork-gb-cache.json file contains only feature flags downloaded from Anthropic's servers — no project state

Conclusion from the investigation:

The archived status is not persisted locally in any form. Projects that were previously active and then archived do not appear anywhere in the local file system. This means either:

1. The archive operation deletes the data without informing the user, or
2. The data is moved to a server-side store with no recovery interface exposed

In either case, the practical outcome is permanent, silent data loss presented to the user as a reversible "archive" action.

---

Expected behavior

• Archiving a project should preserve it in a recoverable state
• An "Archived" section should be visible and functional in the interface
• Users should be able to restore archived projects

Actual behavior

• Archived projects disappear completely from the interface
• No "Archived" section exists in the UI (confirmed — not a display bug)
• No local data is retained for archived projects
• Recovery is not possible through any known method

---

Additional notes

• The third-party workaround tool [cowork-archive-manager](https://github.com/SugaCrypto/cowork-archive-manager) modifies "isArchived": false in local JSON files, but based on this investigation, that field only exists for active sessions — archived sessions have no corresponding local file at all, making that tool ineffective for true recovery
• The 260-character path limit on Windows causes additional errors when trying to inspect files with standard tools — Anthropic should consider shorter session storage paths on Windows

---

Request

Please clarify:

1. Is session data permanently deleted when a project is archived, or is it retained server-side?
2. If retained server-side, will a recovery interface be provided?
3. When will the "Archived" section be functional in the Windows UI?

Given that this is a paid product, users expect "archive" to mean reversible storage — not silent deletion.

+1 to this, please fix

@melaboudi - the workaround was helpful, thanks

Just why? Why does Anthropic even allow to archive to nowhere? Of course, it's terrible bug.

I have the same problem

+1, confirming on Windows 11, Cowork mode.

A use case that might help prioritize this: the Cowork sidebar accumulates many task threads and becomes a real cognitive load. "Move to Archive" is exactly the declutter tool I'd reach for — but I can't trust it, because there is no supported unarchive path.

@melaboudi's tip (Recents → View All → Archived) does let me see archived chats, which helps — but there is still no way to restore them from the UI.

It's worse on Windows: per @razielpanic's forensic analysis above, archived sessions don't appear to persist isArchived locally on Windows at all, so the macOS JSON-edit workaround doesn't reliably apply here. That makes "Archive" behave like a silent delete.

Request: an "Archived" view with a working unarchive/restore, plus a guarantee that archiving never means permanent deletion.

any resolution to this? I had the same problem too in Desktop.