Dispatch main conversation permanently offline despite working Cowork tasks

[omnivide]

Bug Description

The main Dispatch conversation shows "This desktop appears offline" on the mobile client, even when prompting directly from the desktop itself. However, individual Cowork tasks work fine — the disconnect is specifically with the main Dispatch conversation thread.

This has been working for ~10 days prior. Woke up on 2026-04-09 and it was broken.

Environment

• Claude Desktop version: 1.1617.0
• OS: macOS 15.6 (Mac Mini)
• Plan: Max
• Mobile client: Claude iOS app

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Claude Desktop on Mac Mini — Dispatch enabled
2. Open Claude app on phone → Dispatch
3. Phone shows "Can't reach your desktop. Check that your computer is online and desktop app is open"
4. On the desktop itself, Dispatch main conversation returns: "Desktop appears offline. Will run when it reconnects."
5. However, entering a specific Cowork task and prompting from there works fine

What I've Already Tried (none worked)

• Restarted Claude Desktop app (multiple times)
• Restarted the Mac Mini
• Logged out and back in on desktop
• Logged out on both devices (phone + desktop), deleted bridge-state.json, restarted app, logged in on desktop first, then phone
• Toggled Dispatch off → Cmd+R hard refresh → Dispatch back on
• Backed up ~/.claude/ and considered full reinstall (but the bridge state delete + re-login didn't help, suggesting this is server-side)

Expected Behavior

Main Dispatch conversation should be reachable from both the desktop and mobile client.

Actual Behavior

Main Dispatch thread is permanently stuck as "offline." Individual Cowork tasks work normally, indicating the underlying system is functional but the main conversation thread's relay/session is broken server-side.

Related Issues

• [BUG] Dispatch responses generated but never delivered to clients (desktop Cowork & mobile) #40179 — Dispatch responses generated but never delivered to clients
• [BUG] Dispatch: completely non-functional after incident q5qk1234v205 "Resolved" — Max plan, 48+ hours, no support response #40958 — Dispatch completely non-functional after incident marked Resolved
• [BUG] do not respond dispatch #41429 — Do not respond dispatch
• [BUG] Claude Dispatch thread completely unresponsive after SSH task hang #41703 — Dispatch thread completely unresponsive

This appears to be the same class of server-side relay issue described in those threads, where a specific conversation's session gets stuck and no local troubleshooting can fix it.

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. Dispatch messages show as read but never execute after rate limit (macOS, v1.1.9493) #40587
2. Dispatch: SendUserMessage tool not loadable — agent responds but messages never appear #40281
3. Dispatch panel doesn't render results despite successful completion #40247

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[omnivide]

This is not a duplicate of the linked issues. Those describe scenarios where Dispatch connects but fails to deliver/render responses (messages marked as read but no output).

My issue is different: the desktop reports itself as offline — both from the mobile client ("Can't reach your desktop") and from the desktop's own Dispatch main conversation ("Desktop appears offline. Will run when it reconnects."). The connection is never established in the first place.

Notably, individual Cowork tasks still work fine on the same machine, confirming the underlying system is functional. The issue is isolated to the main Dispatch conversation thread/session being permanently stuck in an offline state, which no amount of local troubleshooting (restart, reinstall bridge state, full re-login on both devices, Dispatch toggle) can resolve.

This points to a server-side session state issue specific to the main Dispatch conversation, not a client-side rendering or message delivery problem.

[Darwin-404]

I am also experiencing this exact issue and I can't fix it I've done everything I can think of

[AmihaiN]

same thing here!

[florian6973]

I changed computer and setup Dispatch on a new desktop but from my phone it still appears offline

[aldinokemal]

just happen after upgrading to latest Claude 1.1617.0 (8d6345) 2026-04-09T16:10:15.000Z

[Themistered]

SOLVED! just happened to me 4 hours ago. after a lot of craziness, my solution: on desktop app, click three lines on the upper left corner , then help/troubleshooting/reset app data and that did it for me.

[omnivide]

Edited 2026-07-28: the original version of this comment told people to delete local-agent-mode-sessions/ as well. Don't — see the warning below. The minimal fix is bridge-state.json only.

Update: Resolved — minimal fix identified

The issue was caused by a corrupted bridge session, likely from the April 9th server incidents.

Fix that worked (do this first — it's enough on its own):

1. Quit Claude Desktop
2. Delete the bridge state:

# macOS
rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/bridge-state.json

# Windows
del "%APPDATA%\Claude\bridge-state.json"

# Linux
rm ~/.config/Claude/bridge-state.json

3. Reopen Claude Desktop

This preserves all conversation history, context and settings — only the bridge relay session is reset. Confirmed sufficient on macOS by @peterkoczan and on Windows by @bwolfson978.

⚠️ Do NOT delete local-agent-mode-sessions/

My original comment suggested rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions/ alongside the bridge state. As @cpinto pointed out, that directory holds every Cowork conversation, project and scheduled task — deleting it destroys all of them, and it is not needed to fix this bug. Apologies to anyone who ran it before this edit.

If bridge-state.json alone doesn't fix it: don't escalate to deleting more data — it won't help. Several people in this thread (and on much newer builds, e.g. #53266, and as recently as July 2026) have the same symptom with a purely server-side cause, where only a support-side reset of the Dispatch pairing helps, and even that has been reported to re-hang after a few days. Back up ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/ before touching anything either way.