"workbench.sideBar.location": "right" not being respected

Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Ever since updating every time I open update cursor I have to re-apply this setting again.

I can’t even force read me on the the settings.json

Fix it

Steps to Reproduce

Put “workbench.sideBar.location”: “right” in settings then update. After every update, this setting and only this setting is removed. Even making settings.json read only doesn’t work as it just breaks itself when this issue happens

Expected Behavior

I expect the settings to not be changed every time I time I come to work >.<

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 1.8.0-pre.30.patch.0 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: c1c3214b1f788093673ff735c53e255cc87c6f80
Date: 2025-10-17T08:13:39.775Z
Electron: 34.5.8
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.1
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

2

Hey, thanks for the report. This looks like a settings persistence issue triggered by updates.

To help diagnose, please share:

  • The full contents of your settings.json (you can redact personal info)
  • Whether you have a workspace-specific .vscode/settings.json that could conflict
  • If it happens on the stable release or only on the pre-release build you’re using

Workarounds to try:

  • Switch to the stable release temporarily and see if it persists
  • After setting "workbench.sideBar.location": "right", check the Developer Tools console for errors Help → Toggle Developer Tools

If the issue only occurs on pre-release builds, it might be related to how the pre-release update process handles settings migration. Let me know what you find!

3

Seems to not be related to updates.

I’m still trying to figure out the trigger for it.

All of a sudden I’m having issues with it for no obvious reasons. The only thing I can think it could be is an update.

Here’s a video showing some weird behavior

4

Here’s another

5

Yeah, that’s pretty strange.

Try the following:

  • Try launching in safe mode: cursor --disable-extensions
  • Set "workbench.sideBar.location": "right" and check the Developer Tools console (Help → Toggle Developer Tools) for save errors when restarting Cursor
  • Does the issue persist on the stable release?

If the error is critical for you and doesn’t happen on the stable release, roll back to it.

6

You can close this. It appears to have been an extension causing this issue.

Sorry for bothering you

7

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