[BUG] Desktop app chat sidebar stuck empty after forced re-authentication (right after chat/collaboration merge announcement) — data confirmed intact on claude.ai

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?

I normally use the Claude desktop app for regular chats (mirroring claude.ai). Today, on opening the app, I got an in-app announcement that chats and "collaboration" were now merged, along with a new Artifacts section. I browsed my previous chats within the app for a while — they were visible and working normally.

Shortly after, without much warning, the app asked me to re-authenticate. I signed in again with the same account. After that, the entire chat/session sidebar became empty — it now only shows the single new chat I started after this happened. All previous chats are gone from the app.

I verified separately by opening claude.ai directly in a browser with the same account: all my previous chats are still there and intact. So the underlying data is NOT lost — this is a sync/display bug in the desktop app that appeared after the re-authentication that followed the merge announcement.

Secondary/possibly unrelated note: I also use Claude Code via the VS Code extension on a separate project. I had never seen those VS Code sessions appear in this desktop app's sidebar before, so I don't think they're related to this bug, but for completeness: on disk, ~/.claude/projects/ has no transcript folder for that project either, even though ~/.claude.json still references it.

What Should Happen?

Re-authenticating with the same account should not clear or hide the chat/session sidebar. The app should re-sync and continue showing the existing chat history tied to the account, matching what is visible on claude.ai in the browser.

Error Messages/Logs

No explicit error — only the standard re-authentication/sign-in prompt, followed by the sidebar being empty after signing back in.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open the Claude desktop app while signed in with an existing account that has chat history.
2. See the in-app announcement about chats and "collaboration" being merged, plus a new Artifacts section.
3. Browse previous chats in the sidebar — they display correctly at this point.
4. While still browsing, get prompted to re-authenticate (no clear trigger noticed).
5. Sign in again with the same account.
6. Sidebar is now empty except for the new chat started after re-authenticating. Previous chats no longer appear in the app.
7. Confirm data is not actually lost: open claude.ai in a browser with the same account — all previous chats are still there.

I don't have a guaranteed way to trigger this on demand — it happened once, tied to the merge announcement + forced re-auth sequence.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

Same app version (2.1.271) — this is not tied to an update, it broke within the same session, immediately after re-authenticating.

Claude Code Version

2.1.271 (Claude Code)

Platform

Other

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

Claude desktop app version: 2.1.271. The chat sidebar remains empty even now, well after the re-authentication completed — this is not a transient loading state.