claude projects not loading

When you attempt to open a custom Project on claude.ai and face an infinite spinner, a blank sidebar, or an error loading your project knowledge base, it disrupts your workflow. This guide helps you resolve these loading bugs.

Clear browser storage and cookies

Local storage corruption is the most common reason why custom projects fail to load. Old session data can conflict with new feature updates pushed to the platform. Access your browser settings, navigate to privacy or site data, and search for "claude.ai". Delete all stored cookies, local storage, and database caches for the site. Once cleared, restart your browser and sign back in to force a clean data synchronisation.

Check the project file limit and size constraints

If a specific project is failing to load while others open without issue, the problem lies with the project's knowledge base. Anthropic imposes strict limits on the number of tokens and documents you can upload to a single project workspace. If you have uploaded massive PDFs, complex codebases, or numerous text files, the browser may time out while compiling this context. Try accessing the project settings from a mobile browser or different device to remove some of the larger files, keeping your project size well below the maximum limit.

Turn off browser extensions causing script blockages

Aggressive ad blockers, script managers, or translation extensions often block the background API requests needed to load project files and custom instructions. Disable extensions like uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, or Noscript temporarily. If the project loads instantly after disabling these, whitelist claude.ai inside your extension settings to prevent future interface blocks.

Force-refresh the active workspace session

Sometimes the server hosting your active session encounters a temporary hitch. If the platform feels unresponsive, you can perform a hard refresh (Ctrl + F5 on Windows, or Cmd + Shift + R on Mac) to bypass local caches entirely. If the problem persists globally across all your projects, the main web interface might be struggling. For general interface lags, consult our guide on Claude not responding to diagnose broader server-side delays.

Test on the desktop or mobile app

If the web browser continues to display a loading screen, try switching to the official desktop or mobile application. If the projects load normally in the dedicated app, the issue is isolated to your browser configuration or local network settings. If the application is also failing to open, read our troubleshooting steps for when the Claude app won't load to repair the application's local configuration files.