[BUG] Claude Code Desktop (macOS) — sessions from Feb/Mar lost from disk after app update; later sessions visible in sidebar but show no messages

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?

Two distinct but likely related session history issues observed on macOS after app updates:

1. Sessions from Feb/Mar 2026 are completely absent from disk. Files were generated by Claude Code during those sessions (confirming the sessions ran), but no corresponding .jsonl files exist in ~/.claude/projects/. The oldest file on disk is from April 29, 2026, suggesting one or more app updates wiped earlier session data entirely.
2. At least one session is visible in the sidebar but shows no messages in the UI. The .jsonl file exists on disk (confirmed via ls and wc -l — 7 lines, ~20KB), but the UI renders it as empty. This suggests the sidebar is reading from a session index that survived the update, while the content itself is either unreadable or the UI is failing to parse/display it.

What Should Happen?

Session history should persist across app updates. Sessions visible in the sidebar should display their message content.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Steps to Reproduce

1. Accumulate Claude Code sessions over several months on macOS (ha!)
2. Allow Claude Desktop to auto-update one or more times
3. Older sessions (pre-update) disappear from disk entirely
4. Some sessions remain visible in the sidebar but render with no messages

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.87

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

Environment

macOS
Claude Desktop: 1.6259.1 (5095e7), built 2026-05-06T03:26:09.000Z
Sessions stored at ~/.claude/projects/

Related issues (generated by Claude.ai helping me diagnose the issue)

#27349 — history wiped on every Desktop upgrade
#29373 — migration from local-agent-mode-sessions to claude-code-sessions loses sessions
#48334 — update deletes sessions-index.json and .jsonl files inconsistently