# Authentication error on Windows desktop Cursor App **URL:** \ **Category:** Bug Reports\ **Tags:** login\ **Created:** [September 4, 2026, 12:57am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/authentication-error-on-windows-desktop-cursor-app/170515 "2026-09-04T00:57:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gary\_Johnson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3bc359/32.png) [@Gary\_Johnson](https://forum.cursor.com/u/Gary_Johnson)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2026, 12:57am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/authentication-error-on-windows-desktop-cursor-app/170515/1 "2026-09-04T00:57:44Z")
### Where does the bug appear (feature/product)? Cursor IDE ### Describe the Bug In my cursor agent - all day long it has said 'you need to log out and log back in - but doing that a dozen times doesn’t solve the issue. Do I need to do something like uninstall and reinstall the app on my laptop? (I’m not a developer, so I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this - Sorry if I’m wrong) ### Steps to Reproduce It has been reproducing itself for the last 10 hours - whenever I try to enter an instruction, it responds with Authentication error - If you are logged in, try logging out and back in. Request ID: 0b17e2cd-27a9-4e8c-beab-2e8e7ca44a20 ### Expected Behavior It should take my instructions and act on them, like it did for the first few days since I signed up with Cursor Pro ### Operating System Windows 10/11 ### Version Information Not sure of the version - but it did ask me to update, so I did that right before the error started as well ### For AI issues: which model did you use? not sure (sorry, not a developer) but I didn’t change it from whatever was the default ### For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled If you are logged in, try logging out and back in. Request ID: 0b17e2cd-27a9-4e8c-beab-2e8e7ca44a20 ### Additional Information Has been happening for the last 10 hours - lost a full day of productivity ### Does this stop you from using Cursor Yes - Cursor is unusable ---
**Author:** ![deanrie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/deanrie/32/1263_2.png) [@deanrie](https://forum.cursor.com/u/deanrie)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2026, 4:21am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/authentication-error-on-windows-desktop-cursor-app/170515/5 "2026-09-04T04:21:41Z")
Hey, thanks for the report, and sorry you lost a whole day to this. You came to the right place, your account is fine. Here’s what’s happening: when you reset your Cursor password yesterday, it signs out all devices for security. The app on your PC is still holding on to the old session, so every request gets rejected even though the UI still looks like you’re signed in. Logging out and back in on [cursor.com](http://cursor.com) doesn’t refresh the app session, so that’s why it didn’t help. No need to reinstall anything. Try this exactly step by step: 1. In Cursor, open Settings (gear icon in the top right, or `Ctrl+Shift+J`). 2. Find the account section and click Sign Out. 3. Fully quit Cursor: right click the Cursor icon in the Windows system tray (bottom right, near the clock) and click Quit. Just closing the window isn’t enough. 4. Open Cursor again and click Sign In. Finish signing in in the browser and wait until it brings you back to Cursor. 5. Send one message to the agent. Did the message go through after step 5? If not, send a new Request ID and your version from Help \> About, and I’ll take another look. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/system/32/99069_2.png) [@system](https://forum.cursor.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2026, 4:22am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/authentication-error-on-windows-desktop-cursor-app/170515/6 "2026-10-04T04:22:39Z")
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