If you see API Error: 401 with OAuth access token has been revoked and get sent back to Please run /login, your account has not been suspended. The saved login was invalidated, and the official docs name the cause.

The cause [official]

Anthropic's documentation states that parallel sessions on one machine share a saved login and coordinate its renewal so only one process refreshes the token at a time.

Before v2.1.211, waking the machine from sleep could cause two sessions to renew with the same token, which revoked the saved login and prompted every open session to log in again at once. This was fixed in v2.1.211.

If your symptom is "I had several windows open and they all dropped together", this is it.

What to check, in order

1. Check your version first [official]

bash

claude doctor

If you are below v2.1.211, updating alone may resolve it.

2. Reset your login [official]

The docs say a clean re-authentication resolves most cases when the cause is not obvious:

  1. Run /logout to sign out completely
  2. Close Claude Code
  3. Restart with claude and authenticate again

If the browser does not open automatically, press c to copy the OAuth URL and paste it manually. Use the same trick when the URL wraps in a narrow or SSH terminal and cannot be clicked.

3. Check your system clock [official]

If this happens frequently, verify your system clock is accurate — token validation depends on correct timestamps. A clock that has drifted will get valid tokens rejected. This is common on virtual machines and laptops left asleep for a long time.

4. On macOS, check the Keychain [official]

On macOS, login fails when the Keychain is locked or its password is out of sync with your account password, which prevents credentials from being saved.

bash

claude doctor                                              # check Keychain access
security unlock-keychain ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db   # unlock manually

If unlocking does not help, open Keychain Access, select the login keychain, and choose Edit > Change Password for Keychain "login" to resync it with your account password.

If you are already on the latest version [community report · unconfirmed]

A public issue reports the same symptom returning in the Desktop app after 2.1.209 (filed 2026-07-20, open at the time of writing). The reporter describes retries repeating automatically up to ten times.

This is not a confirmed regression. Only the existence of the report is verified — there is no Anthropic confirmation or fix announcement. If steps 1–4 do not help, adding your environment to that issue is more useful than reinstalling.

What you do not need to do

  • You do not need to cancel and re-purchase your subscription
  • Reinstalling is not a known fix for this symptom