[Workaround] remote-control "not enabled" error caused by stale Statsig cache when DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC was set

Summary

claude remote-control fails with Error: Remote Control is not enabled for your account. Contact your administrator. even on an eligible account. This can be caused by a stale Statsig feature flag cache that persists even after removing CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC from settings.

Related: #28098 (locked), #28278, #28471

Root Cause

When CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC=1 is set in ~/.claude/settings.json, Statsig (the feature flag service) communication is blocked. This freezes the local feature flag cache at whatever state it was in when the flag was first set. Even after removing the env var, the old cached evaluations persist and prevent the remote-control gate from being recognized.

Causal chain

CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC=1
  → Statsig communication blocked
    → Feature flags frozen at old cache date
      → remote-control gate missing or false
        → "not enabled for your account" error

In my case, the cache was from 2025-01-24 (Claude Code v2.1.19) while I was running v2.1.56 — over a month of missed feature flag updates.

Workaround

Step 1: Remove the env var from ~/.claude/settings.json

  "env": {
-   "CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC": "1"
  }

Step 2: Delete the stale Statsig cache files (keep stable_id.* as it's a device identifier)

rm ~/.claude/statsig/statsig.cached.evaluations.*
rm ~/.claude/statsig/statsig.last_modified_time.*
rm ~/.claude/statsig/statsig.session_id.*

Step 3: Launch claude in a new terminal session. This triggers a fresh feature flag fetch. Then run claude remote-control.

Why logout/login alone may not be enough

Some users in #28098 reported that logout/login didn't fix the issue. This is likely because the stale Statsig cache files were not refreshed during the auth flow. Manually deleting the cache files forces a clean fetch on next launch.

Environment

• Claude Code version: 2.1.56
• OS: WSL2 (Linux 6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2)
• Account: Max plan, claude.ai OAuth
• Shell: bash

Note

Users who have DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC set should be aware that this blocks all feature flag updates, not just telemetry. Any new features gated behind Statsig flags will silently fail to activate. Consider periodically removing this setting to refresh the cache, or leaving it disabled.