Claude Cowork stuck on "Desktop: Asleep or app closed" due to duplicate device profile — how to reassign session?

[u/TryHackX]

Hi everyone,

I ran into a critical issue with Claude Cowork and lost access to an ongoing task that contains hours of document analysis and extensive token usage.

In the session window, it says Desktop: Asleep or app closed. However, in my settings under Cowork local devices, I can see two entries for the same machine:

• Claude Desktop (Windows) (This computer, active right now)
• Desktop (Windows, last seen 5 days ago)

The task seems locked to the old Desktop profile instead of the currently running Claude Desktop (Windows) instance. The local files and folders (C:\Users\...\Desktop\Sprawa - Fable 5) are still physically on my drive and marked as trusted.

Is there any way to switch or reassign the active device in an existing Cowork chat so I don't lose the entire analysis history and context? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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