Cursor won’t open / loads blank window for a specific project

Support Bug Reports
1

Describe the Bug

Cursor fails to open a specific project workspace.
When selecting this project, Cursor opens but the window stays completely blank/black and the editor never loads. Other projects open normally.

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image1186×737 3.32 KB

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open Cursor
  2. Click Open Project / Open Folder
  3. Select the affected project directory
  4. Cursor opens the window but does not load the project
  5. The window remains blank/black indefinitely

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 2.4.37 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 7b9c34466f5c119e93c3e654bb80fe9306b6cc70
Date: 2026-02-12T23:15:35.107Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.2.7
Chromium: 142.0.7444.235
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.21-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

3

After several attempts to recover the project history, I gave up and just removed it from %AppData%\Roaming\Cursor\User\workspaceStorage.

This is the second time it has happened after an update. It’s really frustrating to lose all the agent’s history like that.

5

Hey, this is a known issue. The workspace layout state gets corrupted (usually tied to the “Open Chat as Editor” feature), and on the next launch Cursor can’t restore it, so you end up with a blank window.

Good news for next time: you don’t need to delete the whole workspaceStorage folder. You can delete just one key from the DB and keep your chat history:

  • Find the state.vscdb file at:
    %AppData%\Roaming\Cursor\User\workspaceStorage\<workspace-id>\state.vscdb

  • Open it in DB Browser for SQLite and run:

    DELETE FROM ItemTable WHERE key = 'cursor/editorLayout.auxiliaryBarVisible';

  • Restart Cursor. The project should open normally, and your chat history will still be there.

More context and details on the cause here: Workspace-specific blank window caused by auxiliaryBarVisible

Also, for now, avoid using “Open Chat as Editor”. It’s the main trigger for this issue. The team knows about it and is working on a fix.