[BUG] [BUG] Previous sessions not showing in Desktop sidebar after migrating .claude folder to new machine (data intact, UI/indexing issue)

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?

What's wrong?

After migrating from one Windows PC to a new Windows laptop, Claude Code Desktop does not show any previous sessions in the sidebar for an existing project, even though the session data exists intact on disk.

Steps to reproduce:

1. On the original PC, worked on a project located at D:\Datos Personales\Alain\1eraPrueba using Claude Code Desktop. Accumulated 10 sessions, 4,426 messages, 3.1M tokens over 8 active days.
2. Copied the entire C:\Users\<user>\.claude folder from the PC to a new laptop via USB drive (verified byte-for-byte identical copy: same file count, same folder count, same total size on both machines).
3. Recreated the exact same project path on the laptop: D:\Datos Personales\Alain\1eraPrueba (confirmed identical, including spaces/case, via the "Trust this workspace?" dialog showing the correct path).
4. Opened Claude Code Desktop on the laptop and navigated to the project.

Expected behavior:
The sidebar should show the full list of 10 historical sessions for this project, same as on the original PC.

Actual behavior:

• The sidebar only shows a generic "Mariachi App / Serenauta..." project group with one unrelated new session ("Identify project and review main files") and no historical sessions.
• The usage Resumen/Summary panel correctly shows the aggregated stats (10 sessions, 4,426 messages, 3.1M tokens, 8 active days) — confirming the app DOES recognize the historical usage data exists.
• However, none of the individual past sessions are listed or resumable in the sidebar.

Data verification (confirms this is a UI/indexing issue, not data loss):
I manually verified the session files exist and are intact on the laptop at:
C:\Users\<user>\.claude\projects\D--Datos-personales-Alain-1eraPrueba\

This folder contains 8 .jsonl files (ranging from 61 KB to 11,013 KB) with modification dates matching my actual work sessions (June 12–22, 2026), plus a memory subfolder and a UUID-named subfolder. File sizes and dates are consistent with real session content, not corrupted or empty files.

Troubleshooting already attempted:

• Fully quit Claude Code Desktop (verified no background process via Task Manager) and relaunched — no change.
• Confirmed project path matches exactly between PC and laptop.
• Verified .claude folder copy integrity twice (file/folder counts matched exactly after a clean re-copy).

Environment:

• OS: Windows 10
• App: Claude Code Desktop
• Migration method: USB drive, manual folder copy

Additional context:
This appears to match previously reported issues #18645, #25524, and #26452 in this repo, which describe the same symptom (sessions present in .jsonl files on disk but not recognized/displayed by Desktop app sidebar after machine migration, even with matching paths). One of those reports suggests a validation was added in recent versions that blocks sessions not originally created on the current machine's environment.

Given that Desktop apps are increasingly used for long-running development projects, losing sidebar access to session history after a routine hardware migration (PC → laptop) is a significant continuity issue for active projects.

What Should Happen?

The sidebar should show the full list of 10 historical sessions for this project, same as they appeared on the original PC before the migration. I should be able to click on any of these past sessions and resume them with full context, exactly as if I had never switched machines.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. On a Windows PC, work on a project using Claude Code Desktop (in this case, located at D:\Datos Personales\Alain\1eraPrueba). Accumulate multiple sessions over several days (in this case: 10 sessions, 4,426 messages, 3.1M tokens, across 8 active days).

1. Copy the entire C:\Users\<user>\.claude folder from the original PC to a USB drive.

1. On a new/different Windows machine (laptop), copy that same .claude folder from the USB drive into the exact same location: C:\Users\<user>\.claude (replacing the empty one auto-created by Claude Code Desktop on first launch).

1. Verify the copy is complete and identical: confirmed same file count, same folder count, and same total size on both source and destination (422 files, 226 folders, 32.4 MB on both sides after a clean re-copy).

1. On the new laptop, recreate the exact same project folder path as the original PC: D:\Datos Personales\Alain\1eraPrueba (verified identical, including spacing and capitalization, since the "Trust this workspace?" dialog displayed the correct full path).

1. Open Claude Code Desktop on the laptop and navigate to/open this project.

1. Fully quit Claude Code Desktop (confirmed no background process running via Task Manager) and relaunch it, then reopen the project again, to rule out a stale in-memory cache.

1. Observe the sidebar: only a project group appears with one new, unrelated session ("Identify project and review main files") — none of the 10 historical sessions are listed.

1. Check the Resumen/Summary usage panel: it correctly displays the aggregated historical stats (10 sessions, 4,426 messages, 3.1M tokens, 8 active days), confirming the app does detect the historical data exists somewhere.

1. Manually inspect C:\Users\<user>\.claude\projects\D--Datos-personales-Alain-1eraPrueba\ on the laptop: confirmed 8 .jsonl files are present and intact, with file sizes (61 KB to 11,013 KB) and modification dates (June 12–22, 2026) matching real historical work sessions — ruling out data corruption or incomplete copy.

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Not available at time of writing — will update once confirmed via Help → About in the Desktop app. Approximate timeframe: late June 2026 build.

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

PowerShell

Additional Information

_No response_