Hello,
I ran into a very serious problem while using Cursor. What was supposed to be a simple cleanup ended up deleting files across almost my entire system.
I only asked it to remove obsolete files that weren’t related to my current project, keeping the project safe. Instead, it went far beyond that.
It deleted programs that weren’t open, personal documents, videos, projects from other software like After Effects and Corel, PDF files, and many other system files.
My computer was left almost like a fresh Windows install.
This didn’t stay inside the project folder. It affected multiple locations on my machine, and I never gave permission for something like this.
There are some serious concerns here, like the lack of clear boundaries when accessing the file system, unsafe automated actions, and no confirmation before deleting files.
Details:
OS: Windows 10
Cursor version: 3.1.x
Action: clean obsolete files related to the project
Expected behavior:
The editor should never perform destructive actions outside the project folder or on its own.
Impact:
I lost a large amount of important files and my workflow was completely disrupted. I tried to recover the files, but even the recovered ones were corrupted and unusable, so I gave up.
This included years of work and professional files related to my job.
Even with this experience, I like Cursor and hope this report helps prevent this from happening to others.
Contact:
[email protected]
Suggestions:
A strict sandbox should be implemented so it never leaves the project folder. Operations should be restricted to the project directory. There should also be a reliable undo or recovery system, and a clear action log linked to the user account so it’s possible to understand exactly what happened.
I hope this can be improved.