[BUG] Claude Desktop (macOS): Projects "Sort by" selection is not persisted — resets to "Recent" every time the Projects view is reopened
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?
Note: This is a bug in the Claude Desktop app (macOS), not the Claude Code CLI. As in #56060,
this tracker appears to be the closest public reporting venue for Desktop app bugs — please
re-route if there is a better one. CLI-specific form fields are answered with placeholders.
In the Projects view of the Claude Desktop app, the "Sort by" dropdown offers
Recent / Created / Alphabetical (German UI: "Sortieren nach: Zuletzt aktualisiert /
Erstellt / Alphabetisch"). The selected option is not persisted.
Selecting "Alphabetical" re-sorts the list correctly for the currently open view. But as
soon as I navigate anywhere else in the app and return to the Projects view — within the
same app session, no restart involved — the dropdown is back to the default "Recent" and
the list is sorted by last-updated again. Consequently, the selection does not survive an
app restart either. There is no setting to change the default sort order.
The selection appears to live only in transient view state and is never written to any
persisted client preference.
Impact: Users who rely on alphabetical ordering must re-set the sort on every single visit
to the Projects view. This compounds with #59282 (the Desktop app's "Recent" sort uses
stale project-config timestamps instead of chat activity), which makes the default order
actively misleading — so being unable to keep "Alphabetical" selected has a real
navigation cost.
What Should Happen?
The selected sort order should persist at least for the duration of the app session
(navigating away and back must not reset it), and ideally across app restarts as a
per-user client preference — matching common platform behavior for list-view sort state.
Alternatively (or additionally): expose a configurable default sort for the Projects view.
If the fix persists the value via the client preferences mechanism, please make sure it
is not affected by the preferences-overwrite behavior described in #61648 (preferences
writer replacing the config instead of merging, silently resetting values on startup).
Error Messages/Logs
None — silent UI behavior, no error output.Steps to Reproduce
- Open the Claude Desktop app on macOS and go to the Projects view.
- Set the "Sort by" dropdown to "Alphabetical". The project list re-sorts correctly.
- Navigate anywhere else in the app (e.g., open any chat or any single project).
- Return to the Projects view.
- Observe: the dropdown shows "Recent" ("Zuletzt aktualisiert") again and the list is
sorted by last-updated. The "Alphabetical" selection from step 2 is gone.
- (It follows that quitting and relaunching the app does not preserve the selection
either.)
Reproducible: every time, 100%.
Claude Model
None
Is this a regression?
I don't know
Last Working Version
_No response_
Claude Code Version
Claude 1.21459.3 (e0f338) 2026-07-16T05:40:26.000Z
Platform
Anthropic API
Operating System
macOS
Terminal/Shell
Terminal.app (macOS)
Additional Information
Environment:
- Application: Claude Desktop (macOS, Apple Silicon) — NOT the Claude Code CLI
- Claude Desktop version: Claude 1.21459.3 (e0f338) 2026-07-16T05:40:26.000Z
- macOS version: 26.5.2 (25F84)
- UI language: German (labels above given with English equivalents)
Screenshot of the "Sort by" dropdown in the Projects view attached.
Related but distinct issues (not duplicates):
- #59282 — Desktop Projects "Recent" sort uses stale timestamps instead of chat activity
(about WHAT "Recent" sorts by; this report is about the selection not persisting)
- #56060 — Sort by: Recency has no effect when Group by: Project (Code sessions list,
a different view)
- #61648 — preference value silently reset on Desktop startup (possibly the same
underlying preferences-persistence weakness)
The "Claude Code Version", "Platform", and "Terminal" fields in the template are not
applicable to this bug (Desktop app, not CLI); values entered there are placeholders,
following the precedent of #56060.
3 Comments
Note on triage: the
invalidlabel ("Issue doesn't seem to be related to Claude Code")was applied by the auto-triage bot one minute after filing — presumably keying on the
disclosure that this concerns the Claude Desktop app rather than the CLI.
For context, this tracker currently hosts several open, regularly triaged Desktop-app
bugs (#59282, #56060, #76305, #67249), and #56060 explicitly used it as the closest
public venue for Desktop bugs. If there is a better place to report Claude Desktop
issues, I'm happy to re-file — otherwise I'd ask a maintainer to reconsider the
invalidlabel so this report isn't auto-closed as unrelated.The underlying bug stands: the Projects "Sort by" selection is not persisted and
resets to "Recent" on every re-entry of the view.
I am seeing a related but separate Projects sorting problem on Windows.
In my case, the main issue is not that the selected sort option resets. The problem is that even when using Recent/Recency, existing conversations do not move to the top after receiving new activity.
For example, I can reopen a conversation from weeks ago, continue working in it today, send several new messages, and it will still remain buried in its old position inside the Project.
I have hundreds of conversation threads across dozens of Cowork Projects, so this becomes extremely frustrating very quickly.
I have added the full details to #56060 because that issue appears to match the actual behaviour more closely.
But I wanted to mention it here because together these issues expose a broader problem with Projects sorting: the selected sorting behaviour is not always reliably preserved, and “Recent” itself does not appear to represent actual recent conversation activity.
For users with large Projects, both behaviours make navigation unnecessarily difficult.
It would be extremely helpful if Projects had explicit, reliable sorting options such as:
and if the selected option persisted correctly.
In particular, “Last activity” should mean exactly that: when an existing conversation receives a new message, it should become the most recently active conversation and move accordingly.
Partial progress to report, plus a reproduction that isolates what is left.
On Windows, Claude Desktop 2.26454.2 (75afdd), build 2026-10-07, the Project view is now correct. Opening a Project shows Pinned, then Recents in true last-activity order, newest first. That used to be broken and no longer is.
The sidebar is still wrong. Both surfaces read the same account and the same data at the same moment, so they can be compared directly. Same project, same minute, four threads (names redacted):
There is a second symptom that matters more in daily use. The sidebar truncates each folder to 10 threads with a "View all" link, so it also decides which 10 to show, and it makes that choice on the same wrong key. A thread last touched 22 hours ago sits hidden behind "View all" while threads untouched for far longer occupy visible slots. The most recently active work is not merely in the wrong position, it is sometimes not rendered at all.
Since the Project view already orders correctly from the same data, last_activity is being written and is queryable. The sidebar grouping appears to sort and truncate on creation date instead.
Ask: have the sidebar use the same ordering the Project view now uses, for both the sort and the top-10 selection.