Claude Desktop app import rewrites mtimes on all existing CLI session files

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?

Claude Desktop's import/migration process bulk rewrites the filesystem mtimes (LastWriteTime) on pre existing Claude Code CLI session transcript files, without changing their content. On my machine it touched ~100 .jsonl files across multiple project folders under ~/.claude/projects/, stamping them all with the same timestamp matching the moment I accepted the import prompt.

Since claude --resume and the CLI session picker rely on file activity to surface/sort sessions, this destroyed the ability to tell which session was actually the recent one I'd been working in. It looked like my sessions had been randomly scrambled together with unrelated ones from other folders. I only recovered the right session by reading the in-file message timestamps directly instead of relying on file mtime.

What Should Happen?

The import/migration process should not modify mtimes (or any other metadata) on pre-existing CLI session files whose content it isn't actually changing. File activity timestamps should keep reflecting real usage, so claude --resume and the session picker can still sort/surface sessions by actual recency.

If the migration needs to touch these files for some internal indexing reason, it should preserve the original mtime after writing (or use a separate index/cache rather than mutating the source transcript files).

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1)Use claude cli

2)Download desktop app

3)Import the sessions when the system prompts you the option

4)After importing ,check cli sessions with claude--resume

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.220

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

PowerShell

Additional Information

_No response_