Task History Recovery Guide

Sometimes when you update Cline or when certain settings change, you might lose access to your previous tasks. This guide will help you recover and reconstruct your Cline task history, so you can regain access to your important conversations and work.

Quick Recovery

Where Cline Stores Data

Storage Paths

For VS Code Insiders, replace Code with Code - Insiders. For JetBrains IDEs, replace <IDE> with your specific IDE name (e.g., IntelliJIdea2023.3, PyCharm2023.3, WebStorm2023.3).

Directory Structure

saoudrizwan.claude-dev/
├── state/
│   ├── taskHistory.json          # Main history index
│   └── taskHistory.backup.*.json # Backups
├── tasks/
│   └── <task-id>/                # Individual task data
│       ├── api_conversation_history.json
│       ├── ui_messages.json
│       └── task_metadata.json
└── checkpoints/
    └── <workspace-hash>/         # Per-workspace checkpoint storage
        └── .git/                 # Shadow Git repository for snapshots

The taskHistory.json file is just an index. The actual conversation data lives in individual task folders under tasks/.

Using the Recovery Command

The recovery command scans all task folders and rebuilds the history index from scratch.

What it does:

1. Backs up your current taskHistory.json
2. Scans the tasks/ directory
3. Reads conversation data from each task folder
4. Recalculates token usage and costs
5. Creates a new taskHistory.json

graph LR
    A[Backup current] --> B[Scan tasks/]
    B --> C[Read each task]
    C --> D[Rebuild index]
    D --> E[Done]

Manual Recovery

Restoring from Backup

Cline creates backups automatically. Find them in the state/ folder:

	# Pick the most recent one and restore it
	cp taskHistory.backup.1234567890.json taskHistory.json
	```
</Tab>
<Tab title="JetBrains">
	```bash
	# macOS
	cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/JetBrains/<IDE>/globalStorage/saoudrizwan.claude-dev/state/
	ls taskHistory.backup.*.json

	# Pick the most recent one and restore it
	cp taskHistory.backup.1234567890.json taskHistory.json
	```
</Tab>

Migrating to a New Machine

Switching to a new computer? You can bring all your Cline conversations with you. The process is the same whether you're using VS Code or a JetBrains IDE.

Common Problems

Here are some common issues and their solutions:

History empty after VS Code update

Run "Cline: Reconstruct Task History" from the command palette. If that doesn't work, check if there's a backup file to restore.

History lost after reinstalling VS Code

VS Code usually keeps extension data when uninstalled. Simply reinstall Cline and run the recovery command.

"No tasks found" error

This occurs when the tasks/ folder is empty or missing. Common causes:

• VS Code data was completely cleared
• You're looking at the wrong VS Code installation (standard vs Insiders)
• The folder was manually deleted

Check the correct storage path for your IDE and verify the folder exists.

Recovery runs but some tasks missing

Corrupted task folders get skipped during recovery. The command will show how many tasks were recovered vs skipped. Check the error messages for details about which tasks couldn't be restored.

Need Additional Help?

If you need assistance, you can:

1. Open a GitHub issue at cline/cline
2. Ask for help on our Discord server - join our community for faster support

When reporting an issue, please include:

• Your OS and IDE (VS Code or JetBrains IDE name/version)
• Cline version
• What happened before the data loss
• Any error messages
• Task export data: Include the relevant JSON files from the affected task folder (e.g., api_conversation_history.json, ui_messages.json, task_metadata.json) to help us understand what went wrong