Dirty / Unsaved File Indicator Does Not Work

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

The editor tab does not reliably show the dirty/unsaved-file indicator. There is supposed to be a dot on the file tab when a file has unsaved local editor changes, but I do not see it.

I do see modified, but I believe that is related to Git/repository status, not the local editor save state. That does not tell me whether the current buffer is saved to disk.

Steps to Reproduce

open any file.
type into that file, changing it.
“dirty” indicator missing

Expected Behavior

When I edit a file and the buffer has not been saved to disk, Cursor should show a clear dirty indicator on the tab, such as the normal dot.

That indicator should remain visible until the file is saved.

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 3.13.10
VS Code Extension API: 1.128.0
Commit: 4f02290ccd9304f0e6bf8ee85f6e9106f02ac1f0
Date: 2026-07-23T21:41:07.333Z
Layout: IDE
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 40.10.3
Chromium: 144.0.7559.236
Node.js: 24.15.0
V8: 14.4.258.32-electron.0
xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.256
OS: Darwin arm64 24.6.0

For AI issues: which model did you use?

GPT 5.5

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

6

Quick thing to check first: what’s your Auto Save setting? Open Settings (Cmd+,) and search for “Auto Save”.

If it’s set to anything other than off (most likely afterDelay), that fully explains the missing dot, and it’s actually by design. With a short auto-save delay, your file is written to disk about a second after each keystroke, so the tab intentionally never shows the unsaved dot. Switch it to off and the dot should come back for edits you type by hand.

Worth clarifying, since these two are easy to mix up:

  • The dot means the editor buffer has changes not yet saved to disk (save state).
  • modified / the “M” is the Git indicator (the file differs from your last commit), which is separate from save state.

(One more: edits the Agent makes get written straight to disk, so those files show the Git “M” but never the dot.)

Let me know what your Auto Save is set to and we’ll take it from there.