GitHub Copilot Chat History Persistence and Deletion Issues

[Alght-Y]

Type: Bug

Summary
New chat sessions are not being saved in the chat history, and existing chat history cannot be deleted properly. This issue persists across both VS Code stable and Insiders builds. Note: My environment is set to Chinese (Simplified), which may be relevant to the session titling or storage mechanism.

Environment
-Extensions: GitHub Copilot (tested on both 'Latest' and 'Pre-release' versions)
-Editors: VS Code Stable and VS Code Insiders
-OS: Windows 11
-Locale: Chinese (zh-cn)

Steps to Reproduce
Issue 1: History not saving
1.Start a new chat session with GitHub Copilot.
2.Send messages and receive responses.
3.Exit or close the chat session.
4.Check the "Chat History" list.

Issue 2: Unable to delete old history
1.Navigate to the list of existing (older) chat sessions.
2.Click the "Delete" icon on an old session.
3.Observe the list and try to interact with the remaining entry.
Actual Behavior
-Session Loss: New chat sessions do not appear in the history list once they are closed. They seem to vanish immediately.
-Ghost Entries: When attempting to delete old sessions, the entry remains in the list. However, clicking on this entry fails to open the session, effectively creating a "ghost" record.

Expected Behavior
-New chat sessions should be automatically saved to history for future reference.
-Deleting a session should remove it entirely from the history list.

Additional Observations / Workaround
I discovered a temporary way to make missing sessions reappear (observed in VS Code Insiders):
1.Start a new session (it won't appear in history initially).
2.Go to the extension settings and switch the GitHub Copilot extension version (e.g., from Release to Pre-release or vice-versa).
3.Restart the extension/editor.
4.The "missing" sessions will briefly appear in the history list, but the bug returns to normal once regular usage continues.

Extension version: 0.37.1
VS Code version: Code - Insiders 1.110.0-insider (c308cc9, 2026-02-06T17:10:19.395Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200
Modes:

Logs

Trace: [GitHubOrgCustomAgentProvider] No organization available for providing agents
Trace: [PlanAgentProvider] Wrote agent file: vscode-userdata:/c%3A/Users/a25072003/AppData/Roaming/Code%20-%20Insiders/User/globalStorage/github.copilot-chat/plan-agent/Plan.agent.md
Trace: [PlanAgentProvider] Wrote agent file: vscode-userdata:/c%3A/Users/a25072003/AppData/Roaming/Code%20-%20Insiders/User/globalStorage/github.copilot-chat/plan-agent/Plan.agent.md
Trace: Fetched auto model for unknown in 268ms.
Trace: Fetched auto model for reserve in 272ms.
Trace: [NES][ModelsService][constructor] computing models
Trace: [NES][ModelsService][aggregateModels] Processing 2 fetched models...
Trace: [NES][ModelsService][aggregateModels] Adding 2 fetched models after filtering.
Trace: [NES][ModelsService][constructor] computing current model
Trace: [NES][ModelsService][constructor] computing model info
Trace: [NES][Triggerer][onDidChangeTextDocument] Return: ignored document
Trace: [NES][Triggerer][onDidChangeTextDocument] Return: ignored document
Trace: [NES][Triggerer][onDidChangeTextDocument] Return: ignored document
Trace: [NES][Triggerer][onDidChangeTextDocument] Return: ignored document
Trace: [NES][Triggerer][onDidChangeTextDocument] Return: ignored document
Trace: [NES][Triggerer][onDidChangeTextDocument] Return: ignored document
Trace: [NES][Triggerer][onDidChangeTextDocument] Return: ignored document
Trace: [NES][Triggerer][onDidChangeTextDocument] Return: ignored document
Trace: CodeSearchRepoTracker.tryInitGitRepos(): Found initial repos: [].
Trace: CodeSearchRepoTracker.tryInitGitRepos(): Complete
Trace: CodeSearchChunkSearch::initialize_impl success. Elapsed 30013.504100000002
Trace: CodeSearchChunkSearch::initialize#0 success. Elapsed 30013.578400000002
Trace: CodeSearchChunkSearch::initialize#1 success. Elapsed 29935.6977
Trace: CodeSearchChunkSearch::initialize#2 success. Elapsed 29682.168899999997
Trace: ChatStatusWorkspaceIndexingStatus::updateStatusItem(id=4): starting
Trace: CodeSearchChunkSearch::initialize#3 started
Trace: CodeSearchChunkSearch::initialize#3 success. Elapsed 0.13580000000001746
Trace: ChatStatusWorkspaceIndexingStatus::_writeStatusItem()
Debug: [context keys] Window state change. Needs offline check: false, active: false, focused: true.
Debug: [context keys] Window state change. Needs offline check: false, active: true, focused: true.
Debug: [context keys] Window state change. Needs offline check: false, active: false, focused: true.
Trace: CodeSearchChunkSearch.updateIndexedCommitForAllRepos
Debug: [context keys] Window state change. Needs offline check: false, active: true, focused: true.
Debug: [context keys] Window state change. Needs offline check: false, active: true, focused: false.
Debug: [context keys] Window state change. Needs offline check: false, active: false, focused: false.
Trace: CodeSearchChunkSearch.updateIndexedCommitForAllRepos
Trace: CodeSearchChunkSearch.updateIndexedCommitForAllRepos
Trace: CodeSearchChunkSearch.updateIndexedCommitForAllRepos
Trace: CodeSearchChunkSearch.updateIndexedCommitForAllRepos
Trace: CodeSearchChunkSearch.updateIndexedCommitForAllRepos
Trace: [GithubAccountFilterProvider]::getFilters SKU: free_educational_quota, Internal Org: undefined, IsFcv1: false, IsVscodeTeamMember: false
Trace: [RelatedExtensionsFilterProvider]::getFilters looking up related extensions
Trace: [RelatedExtensionsFilterProvider]::getFilters Filters: [["X-Copilot-RelatedPluginVersion-msvscodecpptools","1.30.4"],["X-Copilot-RelatedPluginVersion-msvscodecmaketools","1.23.5"],["X-Copilot-RelatedPluginVersion-vscodetypescriptlanguagefeatures","1.0.0"]]
Trace: [CopilotExtensionsFilterProvider]::getFilters Copilot Extension Version: undefined, Copilot Chat Extension Version: 0.37.1, Completions Core Version: 1.378.1799
Trace: [CopilotCompletionsFilterProvider]::getFilters Filters: [["X-VSCode-ExtensionRelease","stable"],["X-Copilot-ClientVersion","0.37.1"],["X-Copilot-CopilotTrackingId","654905ed71b0ff30e47d52430e9110ce"],["X-Copilot-Engine","gpt-41-copilot"]]
Trace: [PlatformAndReleaseDateFilterProvider]::getFilters Filters: [["X-VSCode-Platform","Windows"],["X-VSCode-ReleaseDate","2026020617"]]
Debug: [context keys] Window state change. Needs offline check: false, active: false, focused: true.
Debug: [context keys] Window state change. Needs offline check: false, active: true, focused: true.
Debug: [context keys] Window state change. Needs offline check: false, active: true, focused: false.
Debug: [context keys] Window state change. Needs offline check: false, active: true, focused: true.

Request IDs

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 7 155H (22 x 2995)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled GPU0: VENDOR= 0x8086, DEVICE=0x7d55 [Intel(R) Arc(TM) Graphics], DRIVER_VENDOR=Intel, DRIVER_VERSION=32.0.101.6651 ACTIVE GPU1: VENDOR= 0x1414, DEVICE=0x008c [Microsoft Basic Render Driver], DRIVER_VERSION=10.0.26100.7309 Machine model name: Machine model version: direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_graphite: disabled_off trees_in_viz: disabled_off video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled webnn: disabled_off
Load (avg)	undefined
Memory (System)	31.47GB (20.96GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id df5a9ecf-ad31-41ac-9744-771c68d64c04
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

A/B Experiments

vsliv368cf:30146710
pythonvspyt551cf:31249598
nativeloc1:31118317
dwcopilot:31158714
dwoutputs:31242946
copilot_t_ci:31333650
g012b348:31231168
pythonrdcb7:31268811
pythonpcpt1:31399616
6518g693:31302842
4f60g487:31327383
6abeh943:31336334
envsactivate1:31349248
editstats-enabled:31346256
cloudbuttont:31366566
3efgi100_wstrepl:31403338
use-responses-api:31390341
je187915:31454425
cp_cls_t_966_ss:31454198
chatvisible:31417128
inlinechat_v2_hd992725:31445440
4je02754:31455664
ge8j1254_inline_auto_hint_haiku:31426735
a5gib710:31434435
38bie571_auto:31429954
7ig2g208:31429686
31c7i317_no_change:31458090
406hc587_ask_agent:31428392
preserve_tokens:31444546
cp_cls_c_1081:31454833
copilot-nes-oct-trt:31432609
ia-use-proxy-models-svc:31446143
nes-slash-models-on:31441832
a43f0574:31442823
e9c30283:31453065
idci7584:31454084
edit_mode_hidden:31453871
showstats:31452402
e3e4d672:31454087
showingstats:31457201
i54ji102:31455230
b1f5h706:31455228
7ef87755:31455235
nes-extended-on:31455475
de16b994:31458079

[akBaroks]

I've had the same issue since yesterday. I didn't know what was happening — I cleared the cache and everything, but messages would appear only once and then disappear.
Finally, I saw your post and decided to try uninstalling the extension instead of downgrading it. After restarting VS Code, the extension was automatically reinstalled, but now everything works perfectly, and I’ve recovered my previous conversations.
I think it was caused by a failed update in my case.
"GitHub Copilot Chat" >- Edit
Saludos!

[dixhill]

Finally, I saw your post and decided to try uninstalling the extension instead of downgrading it. After restarting VS Code, the extension was automatically reinstalled, but now everything works perfectly, and I’ve recovered my previous conversations.

This fixed the issue for me as well. Thanks for posting a solution, it's the kind of problem that drives you mad.

[akBaroks]

It was a solution to a desperate problem, that's for sure. Before finding it, I deleted my chat history several times... But I was able to recover a lot of it. It still sometimes has this bug...

[badass-techie]

Having the same issue...

[Alght-Y]

Having the same issue...

The issue seems to have been fixed in the latest VS Code Insiders, but it still persists in the stable version.