claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix [BUG] Thousands of ghost "root-server" sessions regenerate on every launch, crashing the app — survive full uninstall/reinstall and all known data clearing

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

The Recents list in the Claude Code tab is populated with thousands of identical "root-server" entries. Each shows 0 sessions, 0 messages, and "This conversation could not be found." The volume causes Claude Desktop to crash immediately on every launch with no way to intervene. The entries survive full uninstall/reinstall and clearing every known data location on both Windows and the remote server.

What Should Happen?

The app should launch normally. Ghost sessions pointing to nonexistent conversations should not be stored or should be automatically pruned. At minimum, the app should not crash when the Recents list is large.

Error Messages/Logs

"This conversation could not be found." displayed on every root-server entry.
App crashes immediately on launch — no error dialog shown.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Run Claude Code as root on a remote Linux server (Unraid) from the /root working directory over an extended period, generating many sessions
2. Connect that server's project directory to Claude Desktop on Windows via SSH
3. Sessions accumulate in /mnt/user/appdata/claude-code/.claude/projects/ (and /mnt/storage/ and /mnt/archive/ copies due to Unraid's storage layout)
4. Uninstall Claude Code from the remote server
5. Delete all .claude directories on the remote server
6. On Windows: delete %APPDATA%\Claude, %LOCALAPPDATA%\Claude, %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc, %USERPROFILE%.claude
7. Fully uninstall and reinstall Claude Desktop on Windows
8. Reopen Claude Desktop — thousands of root-server entries repopulate the Recents list and the app crashes immediately on launch

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

Latest available as of May 31, 2026 (v2.1.150–v2.1.157 range) — exact version unverifiable as app crashes before CLI is accessible

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

PowerShell

Additional Information

Extensive debugging performed before filing:

ROOT CAUSE IDENTIFIED: Sessions originated from running claude as root on a remote Unraid NAS (Tower) with working directory /root. Three separate .claude/projects/ directories existed due to Unraid's storage pooling:

• /mnt/user/appdata/claude-code/.claude
• /mnt/storage/appdata/claude-code/.claude
• /mnt/archive/appdata/claude-code/.claude

A claude-mem plugin daemon (/root/.bun/bin/bun worker-service.cjs --daemon) had survived the Claude Code uninstall on the remote server and was running since May 24. It was killed manually (PID 35268).

All three remote .claude directories were deleted. All Windows data locations were cleared. Full uninstall/reinstall performed. Entries still reappear on every launch.

A full search of all JSON files under C:\Users\AugustSkies found zero files containing "root-server" — suggesting the data is stored in LevelDB binary format, but no leveldb directory was found anywhere on the Windows machine after cleanup.

The app is completely unusable. There is no CLI safe mode, no way to skip loading Recents, and no documented way to clear this state from outside the UI.

Requests:

1. A --safe-mode or --skip-recents startup flag
2. A CLI command to clear the recents/sessions list (e.g. claude sessions clear)
3. Investigation into where entries persist when all known locations are empty
4. Automatic pruning of ghost sessions that return "conversation not found"