Remote control: ongoing session never reconnects after desktop app auto-update - permission prompts become unreachable and the session stalls

Summary

After the Claude Code desktop app applied an update, a long-running session that was previously visible in the iOS app's remote control never re-registered. Sessions created after the update connect fine. The disconnected session kept working on the desktop — then hit a permission prompt that only rendered on the (unattended) desktop. With remote control broken for that session, the approval was unreachable from the phone and the session sat frozen indefinitely.

Environment

• Claude Code 2.1.207, desktop app on Windows 11 Pro (build 10.0.26200)
• Remote control from the Claude iOS app
• Affected session: local (non-worktree), ~23 h old, ~1,250 messages, mid-task when the update landed

Timeline (UTC, 2026-07-15)

• ~15:02 — desktop app updated (10:02 local). The iOS app stopped receiving live updates for the ongoing session and began showing it as "Disconnected". The session itself continued running on the desktop; its activity timestamps kept advancing normally.
• ~15:30 — a brand-new session connected to remote control without issue: two-way messaging and remote tool-approval cards all worked from the phone.
• Force-closing the iOS app did not restore the old session's connection.
• ~15:52 — possibly related: in the new (connected) session, one tool call failed with This action needed approval, but the approval path is temporarily unavailable. A retry a minute later prompted and worked normally.
• 15:56:39 — the disconnected session emitted a Bash tool call requiring approval. The prompt rendered only on the desktop. No child process was ever spawned and no timeout result was written to the transcript; the session stayed frozen at that tool call for 25+ minutes until manually stopped (it would otherwise have sat ~5 hours until the user returned to the desk).

Expected

Ongoing sessions re-register with remote control after the desktop app restarts for an update — or at minimum, pending permission prompts of previously-paired sessions still surface on mobile.

Actual

Only sessions created after the update register. Pre-update sessions show "Disconnected" on mobile permanently, and their permission prompts are unreachable remotely — which turns an unattended approval into an indefinite stall of the session.

Workaround

From a different (connected) session, the stalled session could be stopped via the session-management MCP tools (archive_session) — that confirmation card did reach the phone — after which it can be reopened from the session list and resumed. Clunky, but it unblocks remotely.