[BUG] [Claude Desktop] Sort by: Last activity has no effect with Group by: None; project detail page has no sort control and ignores recency

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?

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<body>
<!--StartFragment--><p dir="ltr">Note: this is a bug in the Claude Desktop app, not the Claude Code CLI. Filing here as the closest public venue, per the precedent in #56060. CLI-specific template fields are not applicable.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr">What's wrong</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Two related symptoms, both about session ordering ignoring last activity.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>1. Sidebar, with grouping off.</strong> In the "Chats and tasks" list, with <strong>Group by: None</strong> and <strong>Sort by: Last activity</strong> selected (confirmed checked in the popover), sessions are not ordered by last activity. The setting is already in the state that should produce recency ordering, so this is not a case of the control being unset.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This is distinct from #56060, which reports the same class of failure under Group by: Project. That issue states "change Group by to a different value (e.g., none) and Sort by → Recency does take effect there." <strong>That does not hold here</strong> — with Group by: None, Sort by: Last activity still has no effect.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>2. Project detail page has no sort control at all, and its order is neither recency nor alphabetical.</strong> Opening a project shows its session list with relative timestamps, in an order that matches none of the three available sort options. Observed order with timestamps as displayed:</p>
<table dir="ltr" border="1">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Position</th>
<th>Session</th>
<th>Last activity shown</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>(unnamed analytics chat)</td>
<td>5 days ago</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>GCP-AVTX</td>
<td>Jun 22</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>GCP-ATTR</td>
<td>Jun 30</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>GCP-DEV</td>
<td>13 hours ago</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5</td>
<td>GCP-ARCH</td>
<td>2 minutes ago</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p dir="ltr">Not descending by activity, not ascending, and not alphabetical (<code>AVTX, ATTR, DEV, ARCH</code> is none of those). It looks like insertion or internal-ID order. The two most recently active sessions are at the bottom, which is the worst case for a project used daily.</p><!--EndFragment-->
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What Should Happen?

Sort by: Last activity should order sessions by most recent activity first, in the sidebar regardless of the Group by setting, and the project detail page should either honour the same preference or expose its own control. Right now the sort preference appears to apply to neither surface.

Error Messages/Logs

n/a

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open the sliders popover at the top of "Chats and tasks".
2. Set Group by: None and Sort by: Last activity.
3. Observe the sidebar list order against each session's actual last-activity time.
4. Open any project with several sessions of differing activity dates.
5. Observe the project's session list order, and note there is no sort control on that page.

Claude Model

Not sure / Multiple models

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Claude 1.46388.2 (cb4596) 2026-09-04T07:03:48.000Z

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

• Claude Desktop on Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26200
• App version: Claude 1.46388.2 (cb4596) 2026-09-04T07:03:48.000Z
• Sessions are renamed to short seat labels and used as long-running parallel workspaces, so ordering is load-bearing for navigation: with 15+ sessions across 5 projects, an order that ignores recency means hunting for the one worked on minutes ago.
• Related: #56060 (same failure under Group by: Project), #55225 and #66196 (feature requests for sort control over project groups).