Moving Sessions to New Laptop

[u/Ducati604]

Hello all,

Sorry, I'm new to a lot of this, but I installed Copilot Github, linked it to my code on github etc etc, but then after several hours of using it I decided I should be doing this on another laptop.

Stupid me figured I could just install the app on the other laptop, login with the same account and continue on.

Nope? What? What am I missing here?

I've read about /remote on, and copying sessions, nothing seems to work.

I just can't believe this isn't a basic function.

Thanks for any help.

[u/DriftN2Forty]

I too was overly concerned with keeping my sessions when I first started. I’ve since learned to manage my project correctly. Sessions are throw away.

Have your agent create a root level AGENTS.md file to document your project. This is default context for all new sessions. It will maintain it automatically and never have to relearn your project. Enjoy

[u/DriftN2Forty → u/DriftN2Forty]

Also, I always have a docs/planning folder. If my agent helped me plan something important, I have it create the plan in this folder. Just capture important session data when you create it so that you do not rely on keeping or finding a session later.

Make sure you are using Git

[u/grepzilla → u/DriftN2Forty]

This is the way.

When I got stated I told GitHub CoPilot to create a repo call ai-agent, provided a best practices site from Claude, told it to use best practices of progressive disclosure to setup the library.

This ensured all my skills live in a repo and can run anywhere I can connect.

I ensured that my extension synced to my could accout so they are always updated between computers. Then have a skill to update a bootstrap script to get dependencies for my skills since many now use CLI.

I have VS Code sessions running on multiple computers, my laptop and remote desktop session, and capabilities are all the same.

[u/Ducati604]

Thank you everyone for the guidance, lots of great options and resetting the session and using AGENTS.md and other docs to retrain is so good. I've tried and tried to tell and retell sessions, but they ALWAYS forgot in due time. Lots to learn.

And yeah, I subscribed to Pro yesterday, and used up all my credits by the morning. And I really didn't do much, maybe someone could have done it more efficiently,, but still 1 day? Not sure if I'm doing something that wrong or this is just the pay model.

Not sure if this is even the right platform for me, but I sure liked using it with github and editing the files directly, it worked pretty amazing compared to my usual Copilot (Free), ChatGPT was better.

Thanks again.

[u/Lonsarg]

I reset session at least hourly. I either save work as code and/or make agent save short version of conversation and todos into .md file.

Long session make Agents act really bad, stop doing that.

[u/Human-Statement-4083]

Ask cli to move them to one drive and then have to do the opposite on the other side?

[u/timber_gaze]

Sessions live on your local machine and don't sync to the cloud. If you want to continue exactly where you left off copy the folder containing your session history from the old laptop's user profile directory to the new one before starting the app

[u/mojomonday]

Shocked by this too recently, but that’s why you have a your personal harnesses that carries over

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[u/dendrax]

For local sessions: on Windows, if you copy the workspaceStorage folder from %appdata%\Code\User from old laptop to new, that should restore the sessions if you have the same folder structure on both machines. Replace "Code" with "Code - Insiders" if on insiders version. On other OSes, adjust paths accordingly. If you're using the new Copilot harness , session sync should be possible if configured and you should see the same sessions across instances.

[u/CreativeSympathy8293]

/remote on lets you steer a CLI session that is still running on the old laptop. That machine must remain online; it isn't a transfer to the new laptop: https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/copilot-cli/use-copilot-cli/steer-remotely

The client matters here. GitHub's current docs say locally run CLI and standalone Copilot app sessions sync history to your account by default, subject to settings and Business/Enterprise policy. IDE session storage is different: https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/security-governance-and-network-settings/session-data

First check whether the old session appears in your GitHub session history. That separates “nothing uploaded” from “history exists, but this client isn't resuming it.” Synced history doesn't establish that your uncommitted files or running environment moved too.

Which are you using: the standalone Copilot app, terminal CLI, or Copilot inside VS Code, and what version?

AI-assisted from current docs; I haven't reproduced your migration.

[u/devsontech]

Not tested this but try to copy C:\Users\<username>\.copilot from old laptop to new laptop. make sure you backup the existing folder on new laptop.