[BUG] Desktop: Projects created before ~Jan 2025 missing from grid and search

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Claude Desktop's Projects view silently omits some projects that are fully visible on claude.ai web UI. Both the grid and search are affected — searching by exact name returns "No projects match your search" in Desktop while the web UI finds them immediately.

Using Desktop's DevTools (Developer → Show Dev Tools), I confirmed the /projects API response contains all projects, including the missing ones. The data arrives; it just doesn't render.

After checking each project individually, the split appears to be by creation date (names redacted for privacy):

| Project | Created | Desktop |
|-----------|------------|---------|
| Project A | 2024-10-27 | missing |
| Project B | 2024-10-31 | missing |
| Project C | 2024-11-06 | missing |
| Project D | 2024-12-17 | missing |
| Project E | 2025-02-21 | visible |
| Project F | 2025-03-10 | visible |
| Project G | 2025-03-24 | visible |

All 24 projects created May 2025+ are also visible. The threshold falls between 2024-12-17 and 2025-02-21.

What Should Happen?

All projects visible on claude.ai web should also be visible and searchable in Claude Desktop.

Error Messages/Logs

No error messages. The projects are silently omitted — no console errors in DevTools either.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Have a claude.ai account with projects created before January 2025
2. Open Claude Desktop → Projects
3. Note which projects appear
4. Open claude.ai web → Projects
5. Compare — projects created before ~Jan 2025 are missing from Desktop
6. Search for a missing project by name in Desktop → "No projects match your search"
7. Search for the same name in web UI → found

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.110 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Windows Terminal

Additional Information

Ruled out:

• Not a data-fetching issue — the missing projects are present in the API response captured from Desktop's own DevTools
• Not updated_at recency — renaming a missing project on web (bumping its updated_at to today) did not make it appear in Desktop
• Not sort order — tested all three Desktop sort modes (Activity, Name, Date), same projects missing
• Not local state — persists across sign-out/sign-in, fresh reinstall, and Electron cache clear

<img width="1004" height="435" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e5c25506-acaa-4964-b96e-07b8bbfccd6e" />
<img width="2547" height="419" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8ca16908-2fce-4bb1-91fe-b91025cea9cd" />