URGENT: Agent history disappeared after repeated crashes (hundreds of hours of work)

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1

Hi Cursor Support,

I’m using Cursor Enterprise and I need urgent help recovering my Agent history.

Cursor started repeatedly crashing with the following error:

“The window terminated unexpectedly (reason: ‘crashed’, code: ‘5’)”

After several crashes, Cursor asked me to sign in again and appears to have created a new local profile.

Since then:

• My workspace and project files are still present.
• My MCP configuration is mostly intact (Snowflake still works).
• However, ALL of my Agent conversations have disappeared.

This is critical because these conversations represent HUNDREDS OF HOURS of work over the past several months, including:

  • dashboard development
  • MCP configuration
  • prompts
  • business logic
  • planning
  • analysis
  • ongoing development work
  • custom workflows

Losing these conversations would be a major loss for my work.

I have NOT deleted my previous Cursor profile.

The previous profile still exists at:

~/Library/Application Support/Cursor_backup

and still contains:

  • User/History
  • User/workspaceStorage
  • User/globalStorage

Cursor created a new profile here:

~/Library/Application Support/Cursor

It looks like Cursor created a fresh local profile instead of loading my existing one.

Before attempting any manual recovery, I’d like your guidance on the safest recovery process.

Could you please help determine whether my Agent conversations can be recovered from the previous local profile or from my Enterprise account?

I’m happy to provide logs, diagnostics, or any additional files you need.

This issue is extremely urgent because it involves hundreds of hours of irreplaceable work.

Thank you.

If possible, please advise me before I modify or replace any files in the old profile, as I want to avoid overwriting recoverable data.

5

hi, @deanrie could you or someone from the tea, can look at it? thanks

6

The previous local profile still exists and appears intact. I believe Cursor created a new profile after the crashes instead of loading the existing one. I’m specifically requesting assistance recovering the existing profile, not recreating the conversations.

8

Hi Noa,
Here’s what happened. The “code 5” crashes are a memory crash in the app window that we’ve seen reported before. Somewhere in that crash loop, Cursor ended up pointed at a brand-new, empty data folder, so the chat sidebar looks empty - but your actual history is sitting safely in the old Cursor_backup folder you found. Cursor keeps agent/chat history locally (it isn’t synced to your account or our servers), so that backup folder is the real source of truth, and you already have it in hand. Asking before touching anything was exactly the right call.

Important — back this up before doing anything: With Cursor fully quit (Cmd+Q), make a copy of both ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor and ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor_backup somewhere safe (like your Desktop). That way nothing can be overwritten irreversibly, whatever happens next.

Then restore, using whichever option you prefer:

Option A - simplest (recommended, since the new profile is basically empty):

  1. Fully quit Cursor.
  2. Rename the current Cursor folder to Cursor_new.
  3. Make a copy of Cursor_backup and name the copy Cursor (leave the original Cursor_backup in place as your safety net).
  4. Reopen Cursor and open the same project folder you were working in — history is tied to the workspace path, so opening the same folder is what brings the conversations back.

Option B - surgical (keep the new profile, only bring history across):

  1. Fully quit Cursor.
  2. From Cursor_backup/User/, copy these whole folders into the new Cursor/User/ (replacing the empty ones): globalStorage, workspaceStorage, and History.
  3. Reopen Cursor and open the same project folder.

One tip either way: copy the entire globalStorage folder, not just the state.vscdb file inside it - that avoids a stale-database mismatch.

Two things to expect and not worry about: restoring the old profile also restores your old theme/settings and you may be asked to sign in again - both are normal. And if the database restore ever comes back incomplete, you can still read your old conversations directly as plain text at ~/.cursor/projects/<your-project>/agent-transcripts/ - that folder wasn’t affected by this.

On the crashes themselves: code 5 is a memory crash that tends to show up with very large or long-running conversations, and it’s independent of your account or files. Keeping Cursor updated is good practice, but the thing that helps most is keeping individual chats from growing huge - start fresh conversations periodically, close tabs you aren’t using, and reload the window (Cmd+R) during long sessions.

Let me know how the restore goes and I’ll help if anything doesn’t come back as expected.