Cursor caching files - Major Bug

Thanks for reporting a bug you have found in Cursor!
Please add the following info to help us diagnose your issue:

:white_check_mark: Check the forum to ensure the issue hasn’t been reported already

  • No issue reported.

:lady_beetle: Provide a clear description of the bug

  • Cursor loads files from the cache/index instead of local filesystem or even git, which causes major problems and headaches.

:counterclockwise_arrows_button: Explain how to reproduce the bug (if known)
I use Cursor as a supplement to projects as an additional tool in the toolbox, I still use VSCode primarily.
I’ll use VSCode to do primary work, while strategizing and documenting coding tasks I can get Cursor to do. This is primarily because of tweaks in Cursors fork implementation of VSCode I find annoying or unproductive. Tab completion being one of them.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Do work on the codebase in Cursor, don’t even have to use Agents. Save files. Keep files open in the editor, the ones you were working on.
  2. Close Cursor.
  3. Open project in VSCode, continue to work on the project → Work on the same file you just worked on within Cursor. Save changes. Commit to git if you choose. Close VSCode.
  4. Go have lunch, take a nap, shower, whatever. You now have no code editors open.
  5. Open Cursor with plans to tackle new tasks with LLM
  6. File that was worked on half hour ago in VSCode, still open in Cursor, does not update and is in the same state as you left it during your work within Cursor.
  7. The file you want to work on now does not reflect the changes you made in another editor, does not pull the lastest version from the filesystem and does not pull the latest from git.
  8. Looking at the Timeline panel, it does show the lastest commit from git and you can open a diff to see the changes made in the newer version.
  9. This is not cool.
  • If you save the version open in Cursor, you have overwritten the work you just did.
  • If you fix a bug in VSCode, you lose that bug fix.
  • Trying to manage this through git would be a complete nightmare.
  • I lost about 20 hours this past week trying to troubleshoot and re-fix things that were fixed.
  • I just finally noticed this issue, but have not tested with files that are currently closed.
  • This would be a disaster if every time I opened Cursor I needed to re-index the project.
  • How many other very weird and subtle bugs are there in the system that originates from the root of this issue?

:camera: Attach screenshots or recordings (e.g., .jpg, .png, .mp4).

:laptop: Tell us your operating system and your Cursor version (e.g., Windows, 0.x.x).
Mac - Cursor v.45 – not upgrading until it’s much more stable.

:prohibited: Tell us if the issue stops you from using Cursor.
It hasn’t stopped me from using Cursor, but it has all of a sudden changed my entire workflow, where I may utilize Cursor a lot less – or at the very least have to spend dumb amounts of time making sure Cursor is loading the most updated version of the codebase before doing anything.

This is actually a pretty serious bug.

4 days, no response. Not surprised.

I’ve been in the industry for a long time, launched startups, worked at big borg multinational media corporations. Built and led teams.

What i’ve noticed here in the last 6 months doesn’t bode well the future of Cursor.

The forum is full of issues, bug reports, and overall general sentiment of this product starting to circle the toilet boil.

The general consensus is everyone would love to see this product succeed, but it needs a pause and a regroup.

Do these bugs even get filed anywhere? ■■■■ them into a kanban board ffs. It’s not hard.

My advice for the team at Cursor for this product is: back to basics.
Spend the next 2 or 3 point releases simply fixing bugs. All of them.
No new features.
Communicate to the community because that, is severely lacking.
Don’t patch bugs, fix them at the root. Get this product stable again.

I cancelled my subscription because of the lack of stability in the product, many more are doing so or are considering.

Fix the bugs. Even the ones that have around for 3 months.

Your competitor it looks like is getting purchased for Billions, and you guys are playing around in a sandbox.

Fix the bugs.

Hey, thanks for the report! Unfortunately, we cannot currently get to every report and post due to the volume we receive, but we do have automated systems that collate feedback and bug reports to ensure the team are working on the most critical issues first!

Regarding your report, this is a bit of an abnormal use case, flicking between Cursor and VSCode specifically, as they should hypothetically support the same workflows. If you don’t like Cursor Tab, you can disable this using the small menu in the bottom right, on the status bar item named Cursor Tab. Other than that, I’d be interested to know what other reasons you might have for using VSCode and Cursor at the same time!

I’ll report this to the team as there are two possible causes that could cause something like this:

  1. Something is broken that is causing the editors to not update when a file is open - feel like we’d have many more reports of this if this was a bug
  2. By specifically using VSCode and Cursor, it’s causing some conflict where Cursor already thinks it has the latest version of the file open

I haven’t seen this issue reported before, but I will try to look into it and ask the team on their thoughts. As mentioned, we unfortunately have to prioritise bug reports and responses based on the volume of users affected!

The easiest fix here would be to tune Cursor to replace VSCode entirely, so if you have some other issues you’d want to fix that would allow you to do this, let me know and I’ll be happy to guide you!

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