[BUG] Desktop update to 0.2.1-rc.3 wiped all sessions — DSH_HOME lives inside the install directory

[jsxiao-z]

Windows 桌面端升级到 0.2.1-rc.3 后，所有历史会话、工作区列表、登录凭据全部消失。 不是 UI 不显示——数据目录被更新程序删除了：桌面端把 DSH_HOME 设为 \dsh-home， 而 NSIS 更新器会整体重写安装目录，dsh-home 随之被删除，随后应用在同一位置重建了一个空目录。

Environment
OS Windows 10 Pro 22H2 (19045.3803), x64
App DeepSeek Harness Desktop 0.2.1-rc.3, nightly channel
Install path D:\DeepSeek Harness (custom path, not the default one)
Data dir D:\DeepSeek Harness\dsh-home (persisted in HKCU\Environment\DSH_HOME)
Updater package %LOCALAPPDATA%@deepseek-aidsh-desktop-updater\pending\deepseek-harness-0.2.1-rc.3-win-x64.exe (289 MB)
Timeline (2026-10-25, local time)
Time Event Evidence
13:21 Update downloaded to the updater cache pending\deepseek-harness-0.2.1-rc.3-win-x64.exe, update-info.json
18:25:56 Installer rewrote D:\DeepSeek Harness install dir LastWriteTime = 2026-10-25 18:25:56; every file inside carries the 10/23 build timestamp
18:25:56 Fresh, empty dsh-home created .anonymous-user-id (18:25:57), profiles/, sessions/, storages/ all brand new
18:25:59 New workspace.json initialized with 1 workspace / 1 session storages\workspace.json, initialized: true
18:29:49 Credentials file recreated .credentials.yaml mtime 18:29:49
Cross-check: the Electron profile %APPDATA%@deepseek-ai\dsh-desktop was created at 2026-10-17 15:44:12 and still contains 188 files older than 10/25 — the app has been in daily use since 10/17; only the product data is gone.

Ruled out
Shadow copies: vssadmin list shadows /for=D: → empty ("no items match the query")
Full-drive search of C:/D:/E: for session.v4.jsonl*, .jsonl, any dsh-home directory and DeepSeek Harness.exe → only the fresh install exists; no other install dir, no old session files anywhere
Recycle bins on C:/D:/E: → nothing
Chromium cache / LocalStorage → only UI state (session ids), no transcript content
Hardware: the volume is an NVMe SSD (WD_BLACK SN7100 2TB) with TRIM; the update also wrote ~300 MB into the same directory, so recovery is practically impossible
Reproduction
Install the desktop app to a custom path (e.g. D:\DeepSeek Harness)
Use it normally and accumulate sessions
Let the built-in updater install an update (0.2.1-rc.3 here)
After the update, \dsh-home is empty and rebuilt → all history is gone
Hypothesis: the installer performs RMDir /r $INSTDIR (or equivalent) before extracting, and DSH_HOME happens to live there.

Suggested fix
Do not keep user data inside the install directory. Default DSH_HOME should be %APPDATA%@deepseek-ai\dsh-desktop\dsh-home (or under %LOCALAPPDATA%), not \dsh-home.
Preserve and migrate the existing dsh-home during install/update; the uninstaller/updater must not remove non-application files (at minimum exclude dsh-home and user-created folders).
If "data in install dir" is intentional, at least auto-backup before updating and warn in the release notes.
Add a post-update integrity check: if sessions/ was non-empty before and is empty after, block startup and offer restore.
Ship an export all sessions / automatic backup feature (there is none today).
Additional question
Requests carry an x-deepseek-harness-user-id header. Could you confirm whether any server-side copy of a session exists for that anonymous id? That would be the only way to recover part of the lost history, since local recovery is out.

Impact
Total loss of all conversations from 10/17 to 10/25 (unrecoverable). This is data-destruction level, on a nightly rc build — worth a release note for affected users.

[jsxiao-z]

Cross-reference: #10973 (Windows: “安装并重启” hangs forever on “正在准备重启…”, installer never starts, 0.2.1-rc.2 → rc.3) — same version pair, and it points at the same component: the NSIS update path.

Two details that may help narrow it down:

1. On my machine the installer did eventually run (18:25:56), but it replaced D:\DeepSeek Harness wholesale — the directory mtime is the install second, and every file inside carries the 10/23 build timestamp. So it behaves like RMDir /r $INSTDIR + extract, not like an in-place upgrade.
2. Because the desktop build points DSH_HOME at <installDir>\dsh-home (via HKCU\Environment\DSH_HOME), that directory was inside the wipe radius. Hence total loss of sessions, workspaces and credentials.

Questions for the maintainers:

• Does the Windows installer exclude <installDir>\dsh-home from the $INSTDIR cleanup? If yes, something else removed it and the bug is elsewhere.
• Is “replace the whole install directory” the intended update strategy? If so, user data must not be stored under $INSTDIR.

I can provide: the downloaded installer + update-info.json + blockmap from %LOCALAPPDATA%\@deepseek-aidsh-desktop-updater\pending\, a directory listing with timestamps, and a clean-VM reproduction if useful.

临时规避（给其他用户）：更新前先把 DSH_HOME（默认 <安装目录>\dsh-home）整个复制一份到安装目录之外；或把 DSH_HOME 指到安装目录以外的路径，再更新。
github-comment-10975.md