[BUG] Cowork session reports zero connected folders while the project UI shows a folder as connected

I have had the exact same issue for at least two months. I’ve contacted Claude Support multiple times. I gave a long description of the issue, sent screenshots, and even had Claude create a description of the problem, which I then sent to them - they simply ask me in their reply what the issue is, even though I’ve already explained it with screenshots and tons of info.. and then they simply never respond. Clearly, they don’t have a fix, as they won’t even reply if you ask about it.

Same bug here on Intel Mac, app 1.37937.0 — folder chip shows "+1", then reverts; sessions get connectedFolders: [].

Environment

• Claude desktop app 1.37937.0 (Cowork)
• macOS [macOS version], Intel (x86_64)
• Electron 42.10.0, Node 24.18.1

Symptoms

• In a Project (name contains Czech diacritics), on the new-conversation screen I open the folder picker → "Add a folder" and select a folder. The chip briefly shows "+1", but the selection does not persist — reopening the picker lists only the project entry, and sessions started from the project report no connected folders (get_device_info → connectedFolders: []).
• Affects every folder I tried, including a plain-ASCII path (~/AI_Claude), so folder-name diacritics are not the trigger.
• Restarting the app and rebooting the Mac did not help.

Data point supporting "grant works / init broken"
In a running Cowork session, asking Claude to request access via device_request_folder_access pops the approval dialog and the folder connects and persists for that session. So the grant mechanism itself works — it's the "Add a folder" flow on the project/new-chat screen that fails.

Happy to provide logs if useful.

Update after deeper investigation — this reproduces consistently across every project I've tried (both with and without diacritics/ampersands in the project name), and I found the likely root cause on disk.

Reproduction
On the Project's new-conversation screen, "Add a folder" → select a folder → chip briefly shows "+1" → reverts on reopening the dropdown or starting a new conversation. get_device_info confirms connectedFolders: [] for the resulting session. Confirmed on 4+ different projects, plain-ASCII and non-ASCII folder names alike.

Root cause (found by inspecting local app data)
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions/.../spaces.json is the file backing the project's "remembered folder" feature. On my machine it contains exactly ONE entry, unchanged for 5+ weeks, despite dozens of successful folder connections made since then through the in-session device_request_folder_access flow (i.e. asking Claude mid-conversation to request access) — visible in a separate cache file (remote-session-spaces.json) that correctly logs 35+ successful grants across a dozen projects. So the underlying grant/session mechanism works reliably; the specific "Add a folder" writer for the pre-session picker on the Project screen appears to never successfully write to spaces.json.

Working workaround
Asking Claude within an already-started conversation to request folder access (rather than using "Add a folder" before starting the chat) works reliably every time. Also confirmed: switching a task to "On your computer" mode records the folder correctly, but in its own separate per-session file, not in spaces.json — so it doesn't fix the Project-level "remember this folder for next time" feature either, just sidesteps needing it.

Environment: Claude desktop app 1.37937.0, macOS, Intel (x86_64), Electron 42.10.0.

Happy to share sanitized file contents if useful for debugging.

Cowork device bridge still returns connectedFolders: [] after all suggested troubleshooting steps

Environment:

macOS, arm64
Claude Desktop app version 1.19367.0 (Electron 42.5.1, Node 24.17.0)

What happened:
Across multiple separate Cowork sessions (at least 3 different chats, over several days), the session-start system reminder correctly states that a local folder is connected to the project. However, inside the session:

get_device_info consistently returns connectedFolders: [] (empty array)
Any call to device_list_dir / device_bash / device_stage_files on the expected path fails with: "No folders are connected to Cowork on this device. Ask the user to connect one."

This matches the symptom described in anthropics/claude-code#86647 (UI shows the folder as connected, session reports zero).

What we tried (none of it fixed it):

Re-checked get_device_info / device_list_dir repeatedly within the same session, at different points — always empty.
Disabled the "Run new tasks in the cloud" setting in Cowork settings, fully quit and restarted the Claude Desktop app (via the system tray, confirmed no lingering process), then started a brand-new Cowork task — still connectedFolders: [].
Re-enabled the "Run new tasks in the cloud" setting afterward — no change either way.
This is not a one-off: the same failure has now been observed across at least 3 separate chats/sessions over time, suggesting it's not a transient connection glitch but a persistent/reproducible issue for this account+device combination.

Ask: Any update on root cause or ETA for #86647? Happy to provide additional diagnostics (session IDs, timestamps) if useful.

Follow-up: fully uninstalled the app, deleted ~/Library/Application Support/Claude and ~/Library/Caches/Claude entirely, reinstalled fresh (v1.37937.1), logged back in. Bug is unchanged — "Add a folder" on the project screen still doesn't persist the selection into a fresh, empty spaces.json. This rules out corrupted local state/cache as the cause; it's a code-level issue in the write path itself.