claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix Desktop 3p Code sessions disappear from UI after restart while JSONL transcripts remain on disk

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing issues and found related reports, but this case is specifically about Desktop 3p-created sessions not reappearing after restart even though their JSONL transcripts exist.
• This is a single bug report.

What's Wrong?

Claude Code Desktop 3p sessions created from the Desktop UI do not appear to persist in the Desktop Code UI after closing and restarting the app.

The underlying transcript data is not lost: valid .jsonl transcript files remain on disk and contain the expected user/assistant messages plus session metadata. However, after restarting Desktop, the previous Code sessions are not shown/restored in the Desktop UI, which makes it look like the conversation history was lost.

This appears to be a Desktop UI / session index discovery issue rather than transcript data loss.

What Should Happen?

After restarting Claude Code Desktop 3p, sessions created from the Desktop Code UI should still be visible and resumable in the Desktop UI.

If Desktop uses a separate app-side session index, it should either:

1. persist index records for Desktop-created sessions reliably, or
2. rebuild/adopt them from the existing JSONL transcript files on startup.

At minimum, Desktop should surface that transcript files exist on disk and provide a repair/import/resume path instead of presenting an empty or missing history state.

Steps to Reproduce

1. On Windows, open Claude Code Desktop 3p.
2. Start a Code session from the Desktop UI in a local project directory such as <drive>:\path\to\project.
3. Ask questions / use the session normally.
4. Confirm that a transcript file is written under the Claude Code projects transcript directory, e.g. <claude-code-data>\projects\<encoded-project-path>\<session-id>.jsonl.
5. Fully close Claude Code Desktop.
6. Reopen Claude Code Desktop and return to the Code UI for the same project.
7. Observe that the prior session is not shown/restored in the Desktop UI, even though the JSONL transcript still exists and contains the conversation.

Local Evidence (Sanitized)

On my machine, multiple valid JSONL transcripts exist under a Claude Code project transcript directory like:

<claude-code-data>\projects\<encoded-project-path>\<session-id>.jsonl

Each transcript includes metadata similar to:

cwd: <drive>:\path\to\project
entrypoint: claude-desktop-3p
version: 2.1.x
gitBranch: <branch-name>

The transcript files contain full user/assistant messages, so the data is present on disk.

However, the Desktop 3p app-side session index directory exists but does not contain corresponding session wrapper/index files for these sessions. As a result, Desktop does not list or restore them after restart.

Why This Seems Related To Existing Reports But Distinct

There are existing issues about Desktop not showing CLI/VS Code sessions because Desktop does not adopt pre-existing JSONL transcripts.

This report is slightly different: the affected sessions were created from Claude Code Desktop 3p itself (entrypoint: claude-desktop-3p), not only from the standalone CLI or VS Code extension. Desktop writes the JSONL transcripts, but after restart the Desktop UI still does not show the sessions.

Impact

Users may believe their Claude Code Desktop conversation history was lost after restart, even though transcripts are still on disk. This is especially confusing because the data exists but the Desktop UI provides no visible recovery/import path.

Environment

• Platform: Windows
• Product area: Claude Code Desktop 3p / Code UI session history
• Claude Code CLI installed: yes
• Claude Code version family observed in transcripts: 2.1.x

Additional Information

Please avoid requiring users to move JSONL transcripts into project directories or manually edit internal session metadata. The expected behavior is that Desktop-created sessions remain visible across Desktop restarts, or that Desktop can rebuild its UI/session index from the existing transcript store.