### 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? ## What's wrong Claude Desktop for Windows `1.44121.2.0` does not appear to write log files anywhere on the machine. The most recent logs present are dat

[BUG] # [BUG] Windows (MSIX) 1.44121.2.0: app writes no logs to any location and Crashpad produces no reports — crashes and launch failures are undiagnosable from the user side

Status Closed — not planned

Maintainer reply None cached

Activity 1 comment · opened Sep 2, 2026 · closed Sep 6, 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?

What's wrong

Claude Desktop for Windows 1.44121.2.0 does not appear to write log files anywhere on the
machine. The most recent logs present are dated 2026-08-20, written by version
1.32885.1.0. Nothing has been logged since, across at least one major version upgrade and
roughly two weeks of daily use that included repeated crashes.

Crashpad\reports is also empty, so the crashes are not producing minidumps either.

The practical effect: when the app crashes or fails to launch, there is no artifact to inspect
and none to attach to a bug report. I hit this while trying to diagnose a launch failure
(#80286) and had nothing to provide.

Environment

| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Package | Claude_1.44121.2.0_x64__pzs8sxrjxfjjc |
| Package family | Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc |
| Package status | Ok |
| Distribution | Sideloaded MSIX |
| OS | Windows x64 — fill in build from winver |
| Last version known to log | 1.32885.1.0 |
| Date checked | 2026-09-02 |

Evidence

No logs in the expected user-writable locations

Get-ChildItem "$env:APPDATA\Claude", "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\AnthropicClaude" -Recurse -Include '*.log' -EA SilentlyContinue |
  Sort-Object LastWriteTime -Descending |
  Select-Object -First 15 FullName, Length, LastWriteTime

Returns nothing.

The only logs on the machine are 13 days stale, from a previous version

At the MSIX-redirected path
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\logs\:

Name               Length LastWriteTime
----               ------ -------------
claude.ai-web.log    4731 8/20/2026 16:41:29
cowork_vm_node.log   5413 8/20/2026 17:04:51
main-window.log         0 8/20/2026 12:25:09
main.log           396198 8/20/2026 17:23:35
mcp.log                 0 8/20/2026 12:25:09
ssh.log             24476 8/20/2026 17:01:47
unknown-window.log   1554 8/20/2026 15:04:44

Stack traces inside that main.log confirm it was written by the older build:

at e.readMessages (C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Claude_1.32885.1.0_x64__pzs8sxrjxfjjc\app\resources\app.asar\...)

The file ends on a clean update shutdown, and nothing was ever written again:

2026-08-20 17:23:34 [info] [stealth-update] Triggering stealth update after idle timeout
2026-08-20 17:23:35 [info] beforeQuitForUpdate handler fired, going down for update
2026-08-20 17:23:35 [info] Windows session ending (close-app) - quitting the app

The app has been used and has crashed many times since that timestamp.

No crash dumps

Get-ChildItem "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\Crashpad\reports" -EA SilentlyContinue

Returns nothing.

Package is healthy, so this isn't a broken install

Get-AppxPackage -Name '*Claude*' | Select-Object Name, Version, Status, PackageFullName

Name   Version     Status PackageFullName
----   -------     ------ ---------------
Claude 1.44121.2.0     Ok Claude_1.44121.2.0_x64__pzs8sxrjxfjjc

AppXDeploymentServer/Operational shows a successful Register operation (Event 400/613/10007)
on 2026-09-02 with no error codes.

What should happen

The app should write logs to a documented, discoverable location, and that location should
survive version upgrades — or, if it changes, the old location should not be silently
abandoned while the new one goes unpopulated.

Crashes should produce Crashpad reports.

Possible causes (speculative)

I can't distinguish between these from the user side:

The log directory moved in some version between 1.32885 and 1.44121, and I can't locate the

new one.

Logging is failing silently — permissions, a broken path, or an initialization error before

the logger comes up.

Logs are being written somewhere outside %APPDATA% and %LOCALAPPDATA% entirely.

If it is (1), this is a documentation problem rather than a code problem, but it still leaves
users unable to produce diagnostics.

Impact

Every open Windows launch-failure and crash report is hampered by thin diagnostics. If the
current build genuinely logs nothing, that is upstream of a large class of bug reports — no
user on this version can supply a log, and triage on those issues stalls for lack of evidence.

Questions

Where does 1.44121.2.0 write logs on Windows?
Is there a verbose or console launch mode for the packaged (MSIX) app?
Is Crashpad expected to be active in this build?

Search I ran before filing

Get-ChildItem across %APPDATA% and %LOCALAPPDATA% for main.log and *.log with a recent
LastWriteTime; nothing newer than 2026-08-20 exists on the machine.

What Should Happen?

Claude Desktop should write runtime logs to a discoverable location on every launch, and that
location should either stay stable across version upgrades or be documented when it changes.

Specifically:

Logs should exist for the running version. After a launch of 1.44121.2.0, at least a

main.log should exist somewhere on disk with a current timestamp. Right now the newest log
on the machine is dated 2026-08-20 and was written by 1.32885.1.0. A user cannot tell
whether the current build moved its log path, failed to initialize logging, or logged nothing
because it never started.

The old location should not be silently abandoned. If the log directory moved between

versions, the previous path should be cleaned up, redirected, or left with a pointer to the
new one — not left containing stale files that read as current to anyone troubleshooting.
Stale-but-plausible logs are worse than no logs, because they send users down false paths.
I spent a full troubleshooting session drawing conclusions from a log file that turned out to
be two weeks and one major version out of date.

Crashes should produce Crashpad reports. Crashpad\reports is empty despite repeated

crashes. If Crashpad is active in this build, a crash should leave a minidump; if it isn't
active, that should be stated so users stop looking for one.

A launch failure should leave a trace. When the app fails to start — as in #80286 — it

should record why, even if only a single line. Currently a failed launch produces a Windows
shell dialog and nothing else, anywhere.

The log path should be documented and, ideally, discoverable in-app. A "Open logs folder"

item in Help or Settings would remove the guesswork entirely. Failing that, a documented path
in the support docs would be enough.

The underlying ask is simple: when something goes wrong on Windows, a user should be able to
find an artifact and attach it to a bug report. At present they cannot, which degrades the
quality of every other Windows bug report filed against this build.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Install or auto-update Claude Desktop for Windows to 1.44121.2.0

(MSIX, package family Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc).

Launch the app and use it normally for a session.

Search every plausible log location for a file with a current timestamp:

   Get-ChildItem "$env:APPDATA\Claude", "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\AnthropicClaude" -Recurse -Include '*.log' -EA SilentlyContinue |
     Sort-Object LastWriteTime -Descending |
     Select-Object -First 15 FullName, Length, LastWriteTime

Observed: returns nothing.

Widen the search across the whole user profile for anything written in the last week:

   Get-ChildItem $env:APPDATA, $env:LOCALAPPDATA -Recurse -Filter 'main.log' -EA SilentlyContinue |
     Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) } |
     Select-Object FullName, Length, LastWriteTime

Observed: returns nothing.

Check the MSIX-redirected location:

   Get-ChildItem "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\logs" |
     Select-Object Name, Length, LastWriteTime

Observed: files exist, but every one is dated 2026-08-20 and stack traces inside
main.log reference Claude_1.32885.1.0_x64__pzs8sxrjxfjjc — i.e. they were written by a
previous version, not the installed one.

Check for crash dumps:

   Get-ChildItem "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\Crashpad\reports" -EA SilentlyContinue

Observed: returns nothing, despite repeated crashes over the preceding two weeks.

Confirm the install itself is healthy, ruling out a broken package as the cause:

   Get-AppxPackage -Name '*Claude*' | Select-Object Name, Version, Status, PackageFullName

Observed: Version 1.44121.2.0, Status: Ok.

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Claude_1.44121.2.0_x64__pzs8sxrjxfjjc

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Windows Terminal

Additional Information