Bug Report: IDE Freezes After Clicking Binary Files (Even Without Opening Them)

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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

When using Cursor with a remote SSH connection, clicking on large binary files (.mxr, .onnx, .tar, etc.) causes the entire IDE to freeze, even though:
Cursor correctly detects these as binary files
A warning dialog is displayed
The user does NOT confirm to open the file
After this occurs, previously opened text files become unloadable and the integrated terminal becomes completely unresponsive.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open a workspace with binary files (.mxr, .onnx, .tar, etc.)
  2. Click on several text files (e.g., .log files) - works fine
  3. Click on a binary file (e.g., .mxr) - Cursor shows binary file warning
  4. Do NOT confirm to open, just click away
  5. Try to switch back to previously opened text files
  6. IDE freezes - files won’t load, terminal becomes unresponsive

Workaround:
Kill cursor-server process and reload window.

Expected Behavior

Expected Behavior:
Clicking a binary file and seeing the warning should NOT affect IDE performance if user doesn’t confirm to open the file.

Actual Behavior:
IDE becomes completely unresponsive after clicking binary files, even though the warning dialog appeared and file was not actually opened.

Operating System

Linux

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

  • Cursor Version: 2.3.41-2ca326e0d1ce10956aea33d54c0e2d8c13c58a30
  • OS: Linux (Remote SSH connection)
  • Connection: Remote SSH to Linux server

Version: 2.3.41 (system setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 2ca326e0d1ce10956aea33d54c0e2d8c13c58a30
Date: 2026-01-16T19:14:00.150Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

For AI issues: which model did you use?

claude-4.5-opus-high

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

4

Hey, thanks for the report, appreciate it.

Similar SSH freezing issues were fixed in 2.2.20, but you’re on 2.3.41, so it’s either a regression or something specific to those binary files.

Can you share the logs from the “Remote - SSH” output panel? (View > Output > pick “Remote - SSH” in the dropdown). That’ll help us see what’s happening when you click the binary file.

Also try adding these files to .cursorignore so Cursor won’t index them:

*.mxr
*.onnx
*.tar

Let’s see if that helps as a workaround.