User identity and local data changedthird-party/claude-desktop/data-storage
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### When to use an export or a copy ### Turn on export and import ### What can leave and enter a device ### What a copy moves
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7373## Memory
7474
75During Cowork sessions, Claude writes short Markdown files recording what it has learned about the user (working preferences, project context, and corrections) and reads them at the start of subsequent sessions. In a scheduled Cowork task outside a project, Claude can read these files but doesn't save to them: it lists the notes with their one-line descriptions and chooses which to open. These files live under `local-agent-mode-sessions/.../memory/memory/`, and the app doesn't sync them to a server. What Claude reads from them becomes part of the session, so it goes to your configured inference provider with the rest of the conversation.
75During Cowork sessions, Claude writes short Markdown files recording what it has learned about the user (working preferences, project context, and corrections) and reads them at the start of subsequent sessions. In a scheduled Cowork task outside a project, Claude can read these files but doesn't save to them: it lists the notes with their one-line descriptions and chooses which to open. These files live under `local-agent-mode-sessions/.../memory/memory/`. The app doesn't sync them to a server. The files themselves leave the device if the user [exports them](#turn-on-export-and-import) or you copy them. What Claude reads from them becomes part of the session, so it goes to your configured inference provider with the rest of the conversation.
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7777Where sessions run on the device, users find the memory controls in these places:
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8888
8989## Chat conversations
9090
91[Chat](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/chat.md) conversations follow the same storage model as Cowork sessions: each conversation is a session state file plus a working directory under `local-agent-mode-sessions/`, in the layout described in the table above. The state file records the conversation; the working directory holds the transcript, an `uploads/` directory with copies (or hard links) of files attached to the conversation, an `outputs/` directory for files Claude creates during the conversation (its scratch space), and the [session audit log](#session-audit-log). Because attachments are hard-linked where the filesystem allows it, edits made to the original file while the conversation is open can be visible to the conversation. Conversation content leaves the device only as inference requests to your configured provider, as web search queries to your configured search backend, through web access your egress configuration allows, through [sandbox network access](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/chat.md#sandbox-network-access), in connector tool calls permitted by your `toolPolicy` configuration and the user's approvals, and, if you have enabled [content capture](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/telemetry.md#content-capture), in telemetry to your own collector.
91[Chat](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/chat.md) conversations follow the same storage model as Cowork sessions: each conversation is a session state file plus a working directory under `local-agent-mode-sessions/`, in the layout described under [Where data lives](#where-data-lives). The state file records the conversation; the working directory holds the transcript, an `uploads/` directory with copies (or hard links) of files attached to the conversation, an `outputs/` directory for files Claude creates during the conversation (its scratch space), and the [session audit log](#session-audit-log). Because attachments are hard-linked where the filesystem allows it, edits made to the original file while the conversation is open can be visible to the conversation. Conversation content leaves the device only as inference requests to your configured provider, as web search queries to your configured search backend, through web access your egress configuration allows, through [sandbox network access](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/chat.md#sandbox-network-access), in connector tool calls permitted by your `toolPolicy` configuration and the user's approvals, in telemetry to your own collector if you have enabled [content capture](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/telemetry.md#content-capture), in the zip files that users export if you have [turned on export](#turn-on-export-and-import), and in any copy that you make.
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9393For the questions security reviews most often ask about Chat:
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205205
206206## Move a user to a new device
207207
208You can move a user's Claude Desktop data to a new device with an export or a copy:
209
210* **Export and import**: you [turn on two settings](#turn-on-export-and-import). The user exports their data to a zip file on the old device and imports it on the new device.
211* **[Copy the data](#copy-the-data-to-the-new-device)**: on devices that get their configuration from MDM or from the [Enterprise Admin Console](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/admin-console.md), you copy the user's [application-data directory](#where-data-lives) and related folders to the same paths on the new device
212
213### When to use an export or a copy
214
215Both ways need the same platform (macOS, Windows, or Linux) on both devices. A copy moves more data.
216
217Copy the data if:
218
219* **The user's Cowork projects and scheduled tasks use many folders.** After an import, the user adds each folder again.
220* **On Windows, the user's Code sessions or Code scheduled tasks use folders on a mapped network drive.** An import leaves out those sessions and tasks.
221* **Your policies don't let users save their conversations and files to a zip file**
222* **Claude Desktop doesn't open on the old device**, so the user can't start an export
223* **You set `allowedOrganizationUuids`** under [`claudeAiImport`](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/configuration#claudeaiimport), which turns off import from a file
224* **The export dialog says that the export is over the import limit of 20 GB or 5,000,000 files**
225
226Use an export and import if:
227
228* **The new device has a different OS user name or home-directory path.** A copy needs the same user name and path.
229* **The user already works on the new device.** An import adds to their data, and a copy replaces it.
230
231### Turn on export and import
232
233Both settings are off by default.
234
235* **Managed configuration**: set [`claudeAiImport`](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/configuration#claudeaiimport) to `{"enabled": true, "exportEnabled": true}`, along with any fields you already set in it
236* **[Enterprise Admin Console](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/admin-console.md)**: go to the **Capabilities** page and turn on the **Enable import** and **Enable export** switches under **Claude.ai data import**. To turn them on for some users, use a [per-group permission policy](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/admin-console.md#per-group-permission-policies).
237
238Both devices need Claude Desktop 4.23118.0 or later, the same platform, and [the same organization](#requirements-for-the-new-device). Earlier versions export only sessions, their output files, and project names.
239
240If a setting is already on, it applies to [the additional data](#what-can-leave-and-enter-a-device) as soon as a user's app [updates](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/installation.md#updates) to 4.23118.0 or later. With `enabled`, users can import that data. With `exportEnabled` too, users can export it. To stop either one, turn off that setting.
241
242For the user's steps and the full list of data that moves, see [Move your data to another device](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/import.md#move-your-data-to-another-device).
243
244### What can leave and enter a device
245
246`exportEnabled` works only when `enabled` is on.
247
248* **`exportEnabled`**: users can export their data to a zip file anywhere they can save files. The file contains sessions with attached and output files, projects, the files of each project whose folder is in the default location (`~/Claude/Projects`), memory, scheduled tasks, saved skills, uploaded plugins, some app preferences, and the commands, arguments, and environment variable names of local MCP servers. It also lists the paths of the other folders that projects use, and of the folders and files that scheduled tasks use. If you set `allowedOrganizationUuids`, it contains only sessions, their files, and project names and instructions.
249* **`enabled`**: users can import an export file from another device, a claude.ai data export, and earlier sessions on the device. Claude Desktop can't verify who made an export file, so it asks the user to confirm that the file is their own. If the user doesn't confirm, only the sessions are imported, with the projects and attached files that they use.
250
251After the user confirms:
252
253* **Memory**: Claude uses it right away, including when scheduled tasks run. Paused memory is in the file but isn't imported.
254* **App preferences**: those that the user hasn't set on the new device apply right away
255* **Project instructions**: Claude uses them after the user accepts them
256* **Project files**: the import copies them into a new folder for each project
257* **Folders**: the import doesn't connect any to a project or a Cowork task. A Code session or a Code scheduled task keeps its folder only if the new device trusts that folder. The last screen lists the folders that the user's projects and scheduled tasks used.
258* **Uploaded plugins, saved skills, and scheduled tasks**: they stay off until the user turns them on. Setting [`userPluginUploadsEnabled`](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/configuration#userpluginuploadsenabled), [`skillCreationEnabled`](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/configuration#skillcreationenabled), or [`scheduledTasksEnabled`](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/configuration#scheduledtasksenabled) to `false` keeps that kind of data out of the import.
259* **Local MCP servers**: for each import, a second dialog lists up to five servers with their full commands and environment variables. Claude Desktop tries to start the servers that the user adds right away. Blocks that the user set on tools on the old device don't apply, because tool permissions aren't imported. The app writes no values of these servers' environment variables into an export. Until the user enters the values, a server might not work, or might run without a limit that the user set in a variable. Setting [`isLocalDevMcpEnabled`](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/configuration#islocaldevmcpenabled) to `false` keeps local MCP servers out of the export and the import.
260
261> [!WARNING]
262>
263> The zip file isn't encrypted. Sessions, project files, memory, scheduled tasks, skills, plugins, and the arguments of local MCP servers are copied as they are, with any passwords or API keys written in them. Sign-ins, connector tokens, saved provider API keys, and the values of environment variables for the local MCP servers that users added stay on the old device. Tell users to import only their own exports, to keep the file private, and to delete every copy when they no longer need it.
264
265The old device keeps its data until you [remove it](#removing-data).
266
267### What a copy moves
268
208269On devices that get their configuration from MDM or from the [Enterprise Admin Console](https://claude.com/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/admin-console.md), you can move a user to a new device by copying their data. The copy moves:
209270
210271* Chats, Cowork tasks, and Code sessions
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211272* Projects, project instructions, and memory
212273* Scheduled tasks, skills, and plugins
213274* Attached files
275* Local MCP server settings and app preferences
214276
215277### What the user sets up again
216278
217Ask the user to:
279After a copy, ask the user to:
218280
219281* Sign in to the inference provider, if the app asks
220282* Enter the provider API key again, if the user saved it in the in-app configuration window (see [Unreadable saved API keys](#unreadable-saved-api-keys))
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226288
227289### Requirements for the new device
228290
229The new device needs:
291For a copy, the new device needs:
230292
231293* The same platform (macOS, Windows, or Linux) and CPU architecture as the old device
232294* The same OS user name and home-directory path. Otherwise, Code sessions, scheduled tasks, plugins, and project folders stop working.
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279341To return to standard Claude Desktop without removing data, choose the Anthropic sign-in option on the sign-in screen; to also remove the locally authored 3P configuration, delete the `configLibrary/` directory.
280342
281Except for SSH remote sessions, conversation history exists only on this device, so deleting it is unrecoverable. Deleting an SSH remote session in the app doesn't delete its transcript on the remote host.
343Except for SSH remote sessions and any export or copy that was made, conversation history exists only on this device, so deleting it is unrecoverable. Deleting an SSH remote session in the app doesn't delete its transcript on the remote host.
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