[BUG] Freezing Issues at Session Resuming (with `claude --continue` and `claude --resume`) after Ctrl+C interruption on Windows

Status Closed — not planned

Maintainer reply None cached

Workaround ✓ Mentioned in thread ↓

Activity 14 comments · opened Sep 11, 2025 · closed Jan 22, 2026

Bug Report: Freezing Issues at Session Resuming (with `claude --continue` and `claude --resume`) after Ctrl+C interruption on Windows

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Bug Summary

claude --continue permanently freezes after Ctrl+C interruption - survives reinstalls and persists system-wide

Description

CRITICAL: claude --continue experiences complete and permanent freezing after a specific trigger event on Windows. The issue persists across Claude Code reinstalls, chat log deletion, and different shells/directories, indicating system-level state corruption.

Trigger Event: Interrupting Claude Code with Ctrl+C during command execution that encounters errors, then retrying other commands before exit.

Post-trigger Behavior: All subsequent claude --continue attempts result in complete terminal freeze requiring force-kill, regardless of shell (PowerShell, CMD, Git Bash) or working directory. claude --resume experiences temporary UI freezing but eventually recovers.

Environment Details

OS: Windows 11
Shell: PowerShell
Claude Code Installation: npm (npm install -g claude-code)
Node.js: Managed via Volta (installed via Scoop scoop install volta then volta install node)
Git:
Git for Windows (installed via Scoop scoop install git)
Git Bash path declared as $env:CLAUDE_CODE_GIT_BASH_PATH = "$env:USERPROFILE\scoop\apps\git\current\bin\bash.exe"

Reproduction Steps

Trigger Sequence (One-time corruption event)

Install Claude Code via npm: npm install -g claude-code
Start any Claude Code session in PowerShell
Run commands that encounter errors
Interrupt with Ctrl+C during error handling (Claude retrying other commands)
Exit the session with Ctrl+C

Permanent Impact (Persists after trigger)

Any subsequent claude --continue attempt from any shell/directory → Complete freeze
Cross-shell corruption: Trigger in PowerShell corrupts all shells (PowerShell, CMD, Git Bash)
Reinstalling Claude Code → Issue persists
Deleting chat logs/sessions → Issue persists
Different working directories → Issue persists

Specific Behaviors

`claude --continue`

Before trigger event: Works normally
After trigger event: PERMANENTLY broken - completely freezes every time
Persistence: Survives Claude Code reinstalls, log deletion, system reboots
Cross-shell impact: PowerShell trigger corrupts functionality in PowerShell, CMD, and Git Bash
System-wide: Affects all directories and user contexts
Location: Freeze occurs after entering chat session, at prompt level
Debug messages before freeze:

[DEBUG] AutoUpdaterWrapper: Installation type: unknown, using native: false
[DEBUG] Shell snapshot created successfully (5007 bytes)
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Detected installation type: unknown
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Unknown installation type, falling back to config

`claude --resume`

Successfully lists available sessions
Freezes at session selection interface (arrow keys and Enter unresponsive)
Duration is variable (from dozens of seconds to several minutes)
Eventually becomes responsive, allowing session selection and normal operation
Location: Freeze occurs after showing session list, during interactive selection

Debug Investigation

Debug Output Analysis

claude --resume --debug

During freeze period:

No debug messages appear (complete silence)
Process appears hung but isn't consuming high resources

After freeze ends, repeated auto-updater messages appear:

[DEBUG] AutoUpdaterWrapper: Installation type: unknown, using native: false
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Detected installation type: unknown
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Unknown installation type, falling back to config
[DEBUG] AutoUpdaterWrapper: Installation type: unknown, using native: false
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Detected installation type: unknown
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Unknown installation type, falling back to config
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Detected installation type: unknown
[DEBUG] AutoUpdater: Unknown installation type, falling back to config

Expected Behavior

Session loading should be fast and responsive
--continue should resume most recent session without hanging
--resume should show session selection promptly
Auto-updater should detect npm installation type correctly

Actual Behavior

Variable freeze duration during session loading operations
No debug output during freeze - suggests hang before debug logging starts
Auto-updater runs in loop after freeze - separate issue from the freeze itself
Different freeze patterns between --continue (complete hang) and --resume (eventual recovery)

Technical Analysis

Updated Root Cause Assessment

Based on debug investigation, there are two distinct freeze locations:

`--continue` Freeze (Post-initialization)

Prompt-level hang: Freeze occurs after successful session restoration, at interactive prompt
Shell snapshot success: System successfully creates shell snapshot (5007 bytes)
Auto-updater correlation: Freeze happens immediately after auto-updater "fallback to config" message
Complete lockup: Requires force termination

`--resume` Freeze (Interactive UI)

UI responsiveness issue: Freeze occurs at interactive selection interface
Input handling bottleneck: Arrow keys and Enter become unresponsive
Variable duration: Eventually recovers, improves with subsequent attempts
Session listing works: Successfully displays available sessions before freeze

Freeze Location Mapping

| Command | Freeze Location | Debug Output Before Freeze | Recovery |
|---------|-----------------|----------------------------|----------|
| --continue | After entering chat session (prompt level) | Shell snapshot + auto-updater messages | Requires force-kill |
| --resume | Interactive session selection interface | Auto-updater messages (after recovery) | Eventually recovers |

Performance Characteristics

Resource Usage: Normal/low CPU and RAM during freeze
Duration: Variable (dozens of seconds to several minutes)
Pattern: Reduces over multiple attempts (suggesting caching or cleanup)
Trigger: More severe after Ctrl+C interruption during errors

Additional Issues Identified

Auto-updater Installation Detection

Separate from the freeze issue, auto-updater repeatedly fails to detect npm installation:

Shows "Installation type: unknown" in loop
Falls back to config repeatedly
This happens after session loading completes

Suggested Investigation Areas

CRITICAL - System-level state corruption:

Persistent configuration corruption: What system-level config/registry entries survive reinstalls?
Windows user profile corruption: Check for Claude Code entries in user profile that persist
Auto-updater config persistence: Investigate auto-updater configuration storage outside Claude directory
Signal handling state: How Ctrl+C during errors corrupts persistent system state
npm global cache corruption: Check if npm global installation cache stores corrupted state
Windows registry entries: Look for Claude Code registry entries that survive reinstalls
User environment variables: Check for persistent environment variable corruption

Workaround

For --resume: Wait through the freeze - it eventually becomes responsive
For --continue: Use claude --resume and manually select the most recent session

Labels Suggestion

bug
critical
windows
system-corruption
npm-installation
has-repro
persistent-state

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

View original on GitHub ↗

14 Comments

github-actions[bot] · 11 months ago

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Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

If your issue is a duplicate, please close it and 👍 the existing issue instead
To prevent auto-closure, add a comment or 👎 this comment

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

julianhansen · 11 months ago

with --resume, you can wait all day, and it will not unfreeze.

FojiSan · 11 months ago

Found 3 possible duplicate issues: 1. [[BUG] claude resume freezes terminal on Windows 11 - v1.0.96 #6844](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/6844) 2. [[Bug] Terminal Hangs When Using claude --continue Command #7144](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/7144) 3. [[BUG] claude --continue freezes #7426](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/7426) This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days. If your issue is a duplicate, please close it and 👍 the existing issue instead To prevent auto-closure, add a comment or 👎 this comment 🤖 Generated with Claude Code

I've updated the bug description. It's quite similar to the mentioned issues but the triggering event is not the same. It seems that the freezing problems come from the same root cause/mechanism. No matter what, this is clearly a bug of --continue and --resume flags. I let you merge the issues if appropriate.

fschwiet · 11 months ago

I see this bug pretty regularly, its quite annoying (Windows 11).

TurtleBotDev · 11 months ago

Yeah I just upgraded my Claude code version and I am getting the same thing. Just hangs

hasif5 · 11 months ago

I can't believe this simple bug is still not resolved. It's so frustrating when not able to resume/continue e.g. accidentally killed node process by Claude itself. Sometime non-stop pressing enter works. But that's on luck.

raulmarindev · 11 months ago

Ok, this thing is making claude code unusable for me. Any possible workaround would be greatly appreciated. I upgraded my claude sub recently to give this a try, and I was having a great experience, but this is a dealbreaker.

Edit: Ok, so I followed these steps:

1) npm i -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code@1.0.88

2) run "claude --resume" and terminal was responsive

3) npm i -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code@latest (1.0.117)

4) run "claude --resume" and terminal was unresponsive again

For now, I will keep using version 1.0.88

Edit2: At some point, the latest version was automatically installed again and brought with it the issue... Maybe the VS Code extension doing something?

Edit3: On windows 11 I was able to stop the auto-update by adding an environment variable to my user DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER=1

vinnividivicci · 11 months ago

Having same issue: claude --resume and claude --continue hang once TUI open.

Windows 11 powershell. claude code v1.0.120 (latest)

Workaround:
1) Run only claude
2) Run /resume
3) Pick conversion
4) Work for me

Perlover · 10 months ago

$ claude --version
2.0.19 (Claude Code)

Here’s what’s happening right now. I’m on Linux. When I run claude --resume from the command line, it just hangs and I see a blank (black, in my case) screen in the terminal. If I run claude and then issue the /resume command, it also freezes. In both cases I have to terminate it with Ctrl+C.

UPDATE: After a few minutes, everything started working. Apparently, there were some temporary issues on Claude’s cloud side. I can’t really explain it otherwise — my internet connection was stable the whole time.

github-actions[bot] · 8 months ago

This issue has been inactive for 30 days. If the issue is still occurring, please comment to let us know. Otherwise, this issue will be automatically closed in 30 days for housekeeping purposes.

Mohammad-samaha · 8 months ago

I am facing the same issue with Claude Code v2.0.75. I've tried the above mentioned suggestions but no luck. the terminal is stuck. I cannot type anything. I can start a new conversation but lose the previous context.

Update: I've uninstalled Claude Code and reinstalled V2.0.73 and it worked.

github-actions[bot] · 7 months ago

This issue has been automatically closed due to 60 days of inactivity. If you're still experiencing this issue, please open a new issue with updated information.

marcindulak · 7 months ago

This issue was closed incorrectly despite recent human comments. This behavior of the bot is reported at https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/16497. Please upvote that issue, so maybe it gets noticed.