### Preflight Checklist - [x] I have searched [existing issues](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20label%3Abug) 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? Environment: Windows 11 Pro (10.0.26200), Claude Code desktop app Issue: After reinstalling the Claude Code desktop app, all sidebar session groups (cust

[BUG] Sidebar sessions empty after app reinstall — data intact on disk, index not rebuilt

Status Open

Maintainer reply None cached

Activity 0 comments · opened Aug 25, 2026

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?

Environment: Windows 11 Pro (10.0.26200), Claude Code desktop app

Issue: After reinstalling the Claude Code desktop app, all sidebar session groups (custom folders like "Synthetic data creation," "IntelliSee + VLM," "Training," etc.) appear empty ("Drag or move sessions here"), and "Ungrouped" is also empty. This persists after a full app restart.

This is not data loss — I confirmed the underlying session transcripts are fully intact on disk at ~/.claude/projects/<project>/*.jsonl, for example:

C--ProgramData-IntelliSee-intellisee-camera-2f66e9093d23 — 14 session files, most recent dated 2026-08-21
C--Users-Windows-Desktop-gen-ai-projects-Solar-panel-centerline-detection — 6 sessions
C--ProgramData-IntelliSee-camera — 2 sessions
C--ProgramData-IntelliSee-RF-DETR — 2 sessions
C--ProgramData-IntelliSee-Evaluation-pipeline — 1 session

Sampled one file directly and confirmed it's valid, readable JSONL with a correct sessionId matching the filename.

Suspected cause: The sidebar's session index appears to live in the app's local data store (%APPDATA%\Claude\IndexedDB / local storage), which was reset by the reinstall. On relaunch, the app doesn't reindex/rescan ~/.claude/projects to repopulate the sidebar with pre-existing sessions.

Expected behavior: On launch, the app should detect session transcripts already present in ~/.claude/projects and surface them (at minimum under "Ungrouped") even if the custom folder assignments were lost.

Impact: Can't access ~26 prior sessions through the app UI. I don't have the standalone claude CLI installed (only Node/npm-free machine), so the claude --resume workaround isn't available to me either.

What Should Happen?

On launch, the app should detect session transcripts already present in ~/.claude/projects and surface them in the sidebar (at minimum under "Ungrouped"), even if the custom folder/group assignments were lost during reinstall.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Have existing Claude Code sessions organized into custom sidebar folders/groups (e.g. project-based groupings)
Reinstall the Claude Code desktop app
Launch the app and view the sidebar
Observe: all custom groups and "Ungrouped" appear empty ("Drag or move sessions here"), even after a full app restart
Check ~/.claude/projects/<project>/*.jsonl directly — session transcript files are still present and valid, confirming the sessions were never actually deleted, only missing from the sidebar index

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

1.34493.1

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

PowerShell

Additional Information