Deleted old session reopens on launch on Windows

[bholmesdev]

Summary

A Windows 11 user reports that Warp sometimes automatically reopens an old session/tab at launch even after they have deleted that session from history multiple times.

Problem

The user expects a deleted session/tab to stay deleted. Instead, an old session sometimes reappears when they open Warp at the start of the day. The issue is intermittent and reportedly happens roughly every other day.

Original report: https://www.reddit.com/r/devsarg/comments/1tfvlwp/comment/omoyuem/

Expected behavior

After a user deletes a session/tab from history, Warp should not restore that deleted session on future launches.

Actual behavior

Warp restores and shows the old deleted session again when the console launches.

Reproduction steps or desired workflow

1. Use Warp on Windows 11.
2. Delete an old session/tab from history.
3. Launch Warp later, e.g. at the start of a new day.
4. Observe that the deleted session may be restored and shown again.

Artifacts

Screenshot from reporter: https://preview.redd.it/ifyhh3ada42h1.png?width=1082&format=png&auto=webp&s=b8f7664cd50e0892a8c7cd072de8bc8a58bdc789

Warp version

Unknown

Operating system

Windows 11

[oz-for-oss]

@bholmesdev

Here's what I found while triaging this issue:

This appears tied to Warp's startup session restoration on Windows rather than shell behavior. As a temporary workaround, disabling the Restore previous session setting should prevent automatic restoration while this is investigated.

I have a few follow-up questions before I can narrow this down:

1. What Warp version and channel are you using?
2. Can you attach a short recording showing the exact delete action and the later launch where the same session reappears?

Reply in-thread with those details and the triage workflow will automatically re-evaluate the issue and update the diagnosis, labels, and next steps.

Maintainer details

I concluded that a Windows 11 report indicates a deleted or closed old session can intermittently reappear on launch, likely through stale session-restoration state..

Triage summary

This looks like a Windows-specific session restoration bug: an old session/tab that the reporter believes was deleted can still be present in persisted app state and restored on a later launch.

Reproducibility

Low. The report has Windows 11, a screenshot link, rough steps, and an intermittent frequency of about every other day, but it does not include the Warp version/channel or the exact UI action used to delete the session.

Likely area

The relevant code appears to be the session/app-state restoration pipeline:

• app/src/terminal/general_settings.rs defines general.restore_session, which defaults to enabled.
• app/src/settings/init.rs reads that setting at startup.
• app/src/root_view.rs restores persisted windows/tabs from AppState when session restoration is enabled.
• app/src/workspace/global_actions.rs snapshots current app state through workspace:save_app.
• app/src/workspace/view.rs closes tabs/windows and dispatches app-state saves after tab changes.
• app/src/persistence/sqlite.rs writes and reads the persisted windows/tabs/panes state.
• app/src/undo_close/stack.rs temporarily retains closed windows/tabs for undo-close, which may be relevant if the reporter's delete action is actually a close action.

A plausible failure mode is that the post-delete/post-close snapshot is not what gets persisted before the Windows login/startup launch restores state. Confidence is low until the exact deletion path and Warp version are known.

Duplicate check

Fetched all open non-PR issues with gh api --paginate and searched for deleted/old/restored session or tab reports, excluding #11375. No two sufficiently similar open issues were found, and the recent-closed issue check did not identify a canonical duplicate.

Question reasoning

1. What Warp version and channel are you using? — The report is Windows-specific and intermittent, so the exact build is needed to route this against recent session-restoration changes or known fixed versions.
2. Can you attach a short recording showing the exact delete action and the later launch where the same session reappears? — The code path differs depending on whether the user closes a tab/window, deletes a navigation/session entry, or uses another history UI; visual evidence would identify the affected path.

This is my automated analysis and may be incorrect. A maintainer will verify the details.

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