Cursor hangs when attempting to patch a non-existent file

Support Bug Reports
1

Describe the Bug

Cursor hangs when attempting to patch a non-existent file.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Create a new Laravel project.
  2. Ask Cursor to generate a REST API.
  3. Cursor hangs when attempting to patch a file that does not yet exist.

Expected Behavior

Creating file instead of patching a new file.

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 2.5.26

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

3

Hey, thanks for the report. There have been similar reports of the agent freezing when applying file changes. For reference: Cursor freezes on final “Review Changes” step in Agent Mode.

To help narrow this down, could you share a few things:

  1. Which model were you using (Auto, Claude, GPT, etc.)?
  2. Do you have any MCP servers configured? (Cursor Settings > search “MCP”) If yes, try disabling them temporarily and restart.
  3. A screenshot or screen recording of what happens when Cursor hangs. Does it freeze completely (Not Responding) or just get stuck on the step?
  4. Console errors at the time of the freeze: Help > Toggle Developer Tools > Console tab. Screenshot any red errors.
  5. Chat Request ID from the frozen session (chat context menu at the top right > Copy Request ID).

Also, as a quick workaround, if the agent tries to patch a file that doesn’t exist, you can try stopping the generation, manually creating the file, and then re-prompting. Not ideal, but it might unblock you for now.

Let me know what you find.

4

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

  1. I use GPT, Auto, and Composer.

  2. No MCP.

  3. Just stuck.

  4. Attached.

    Capture d’écran 2026-03-03 à 8.47.41 mat.
    Capture d’écran 2026-03-03 à 8.47.41 mat.1108×1370 595 KB

  5. 73f80a4c-24b4-4644-bd67-235b2340dbe0

Yes, it works after creating files manually.

5

It is getting worse. Now, I can’t use Cursor to work on my projects, because I need to create many files in different directories manually. Thanks for your help, and I will try to find other solutions.

6

Thanks for the details and the video, that really helped.

I can see two separate issues in the console logs:

  1. The actual freeze. The watchdog error getBufferForWrite still not completed after 3000ms means the agent is timing out while trying to write to a file that doesn’t exist. That’s the root cause of the freeze.

  2. The OTEL exporter errors ("Trace spans collection is not enabled for this user"). This is a separate known issue where telemetry spans can build up in memory when they get rejected. It doesn’t directly cause the freeze when patching the file, but over time it can hurt overall performance.

A couple things to try:

  • Update to the latest version. You’re on 2.5.26, and we’ve shipped a few fixes since then. Go to Help > Check for Updates.
  • For the OTEL memory issue, open Cursor Settings > General > Privacy Mode and try temporarily turning it off. If you need Privacy Mode on, keep in mind the OTEL errors will continue until we fix the underlying issue.

For now, the most reliable workaround is still creating the file manually. I know that’s not ideal, especially when you have lots of files across different folders.

Let me know if updating helps.

7

Hi,

After upgrading my MacOS and restarting my machine, everything works well. Thanks for your help.