Again: Extension host terminated unexpectedly 3 times within the last 5 minutes

Support Bug Reports
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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

I’m getting the “Extension host terminated unexpectedly 3 times within the last 5 minutes.” again (first time for me but I see several posts from '24 and '25).

I was re-installing my laptop and installed VS Code then Cursor. I used VS Code to install some of the usual extensions I use and then Cursor started giving the error.

Coincidentally, my MacMini updated to the latest version and started showing the same error even though I haven’t used it for several weeks except for updating cursor when I checked on it on that machine.

  • all extensions are disabled
  • I tried the “install cursor CLI” recommendation I have seen in other threads.

Steps to Reproduce

Open Cursor

Expected Behavior

Expect to use installed extensions but cannot.

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 2.5.26 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 7d96c2a03bb088ad367615e9da1a3fe20fbbc6a0
Date: 2026-02-26T04:57:56.825Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.4.0
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.0
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.3.0

For AI issues: which model did you use?

NA

For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled

NA

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

3

Hey, thanks for the report. A couple things worth trying, since just disabling extensions in the UI might not be enough:

  1. Launch from the terminal with extensions fully disabled:

    cursor --disable-extensions

    This completely bypasses all extensions. If it still crashes, then extensions aren’t the cause.

  2. Try a temporary clean profile:

    cursor --profile-temp

    This starts Cursor with a fresh profile, with no extensions and no settings. If this works, the issue is in your profile or state.

  3. Delete the state database (you’ll need to sign in again after this):

    rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Cursor/User/globalStorage/state.vscdb

  4. If nothing helps, try a full clean reinstall. Delete Cursor, then remove these folders, then reinstall from https://cursor.com/download:

    • ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor/
    • ~/.cursor/

A few questions to narrow it down:

  • Can you open Developer Tools (Help > Toggle Developer Tools) before the crash, then send any red errors from the Console tab?
  • How large are the projects you’re opening, roughly how many files?
  • Which extensions were you using? Since you installed them via VS Code first, it might be a shared extension causing the crash.

The team is aware of stability issues with the extensions process in recent versions. Your report from two different machines helps us prioritize.

Let me know what you find.