[BUG] Cowork sessions not visible in sidebar after reinstall: session-env data intact, need indexing recovery procedure

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?

After reinstalling the Claude desktop app, the Cowork sidebar shows no sessions despite all session data being intact on disk. The app appears to have lost its index of existing sessions and is not reading from or rebuilding it based on the files present in the .claude folder.

What Should Happen?

The Cowork sidebar should either automatically detect existing session-env folders on startup and display them, or there should be a documented recovery procedure to reconnect existing session data to the UI after a reinstall.

P.S. I was sent to this space to raise an issue by Fin AI Agent

Claude Setup.txt

Error Messages/Logs

During reinstall: AddPackage failed with HRESULT 0x80073CF6 and RemovePackage failed with HRESULT 0x80073CFA for all existing Claude MSIX packages. CoworkVMService removal also failed with Access Denied. Full setup error log attached above

Steps to Reproduce

1. Have an existing Claude desktop installation on Windows Build 26200 (Insider Preview) with active Cowork sessions
2. Encounter MSIX installation failure (0x80073CF6) preventing app from launching
3. Manually clear MSIX registrations via PowerShell and reinstall
4. Open Claude — Cowork sidebar shows empty despite session-env folders being present at C:\Users\igor1.claude\session-env\

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

1.6608.0 (same version — issue introduced by reinstall, not version change)

Claude Code Version

1.6608.0

Platform

Other

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

Session data confirmed present on disk:

• C:\Users\igor1\.claude\session-env\ — 30+ UUID-named folders dated April–May 2026
• C:\Users\igor1\.claude\projects\ — project folders with .jsonl files intact (e.g. 891c505a-28fa-4b77-8970-f09a12f1f6ad.jsonl, 255KB, dated 5 May 2026)
• %AppData%\Roaming\Claude\local-agent-mode-sessions\ — contains only a manifest.json with {"lastUpdated": ..., "plugins": []}, no session references

Primary question: what file or metadata structure does the Cowork sidebar read to populate the session list, and is there a manual recovery procedure to reconnect existing session-env data after a reinstall?