[BUG] Session transcripts expire/disappear silently while still listed in the sidebar — should not happen unless archived

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?

Here's a draft you can paste directly into a new issue at github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues:

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Title: Session transcripts expire/disappear silently while still listed in the sidebar — should not happen unless archived

Environment:

• Claude Code desktop app version: 1.22209.3 (babe11), 2026-07-19
• macOS (Darwin 24.6.0)
• Usage pattern: project sessions worked on intermittently (e.g. weekly), not daily

Description:

Older sessions still appear in the recent-sessions sidebar with their correct titles, but clicking them shows:

Session not found on disk Send a message to start fresh in this directory.

with only Archive/Delete as options.

Diagnosis:

I inspected the underlying session metadata files directly (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code-sessions/*/*/*.json). Each broken session's JSON contains an explicit flag:

"transcriptUnavailable": true

This is present on a large number of session files, not an isolated case — it does not appear to be file corruption, a pathing bug, or related to using multiple accounts on one machine (I confirmed both a working and a broken session live under the identical account/org folder). It looks like transcript content is being pruned/expired after some retention period, while the lightweight metadata entry (title, timestamps, isArchived: false) is retained indefinitely and continues to render normally in the sidebar.

Why this is a problem:

1. Data loss without consent or warning. Sessions disappear (their content becomes unrecoverable) with no indication this will happen, and no way to opt out short of manually archiving every session before it ages out. Users who work intermittently (e.g. weekends only) are disproportionately affected, since more time elapses between visits.
2. Misleading UI state. A session with transcriptUnavailable: true is visually indistinguishable from a healthy one in the sidebar — same title, same normal appearance — until you click it and hit a dead end. There's no visual cue (graying out, icon, badge) that content is gone or at risk.

What Should Happen?

Requested behavior:

1. Transcripts should not be deleted/expired for sessions the user has not explicitly archived. If storage/retention limits require pruning, archiving should be the mechanism that opts a session in or out of it — not a silent, time-based purge applied uniformly.
2. If some form of expiry must remain (e.g. for storage management), the sidebar should visually distinguish sessions whose transcript is no longer available (or approaching expiry) before the user clicks in, rather than presenting them identically to live sessions.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Reproduction:

grep -l "transcriptUnavailable" ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude-code-sessions///*.json

returns numerous session files where this flag is true, spanning sessions from several weeks back, while more recent sessions do not have it set.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Claude Code desktop app version: 1.22209.3 (babe11), 2026-07-19

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_