Desktop app: sessions started locally on a PC are invisible on other machines, with no UI indication
Environment: Claude desktop app 1.26832.0 (Claude Code 2.1.222) on Windows 11 Pro (26200), same account signed in on several PCs.
Behaviour: Session visibility across machines depends on how the session was started, and the app gives no indication of the difference:
- A session started via New Session > Remote Control (e.g. from a laptop, targeting a desktop) appears on all machines and updates live on all of them. This is the expected and useful behaviour.
- A session started directly in the desktop app on the desktop itself never appears on the other machines: not in the sidebar, not in search, whether the session is open or closed on the originating PC.
Both kinds of sessions run on the same machine, against the same folders, and look identical in the UI. A user therefore only discovers the difference when they later look for a session on another machine and it is not there.
Expected: Either sessions started locally should also be visible (and continuable) from the user's other machines like remote-control sessions are, or at the very least the UI should indicate per session where it lives and whether it will be reachable elsewhere.
Real-world impact: You start a session at your office desktop preparing for a court appearance, and at court discover the laptop cannot see that session at all. The workaround (always starting sessions via Remote Control from another device, even when sitting at the PC that will run them) is easy to forget and not discoverable.