Codex Desktop remote control shows duplicate MacBook; mobile can list chats but opening a chat returns 403

What happened?

Codex Desktop remote control for a personal ChatGPT account worked on launch day, then stopped working.

ChatGPT mobile now shows duplicate MacBook entries:

• One entry loads the chat list, but opening any chat returns 403.
• The other entry only shows reconnect/offline, and reconnect does nothing.

All local/mobile settings appear enabled. Re-scanning the Codex Desktop mobile setup QR code does not fix it.

Expected behavior

ChatGPT mobile should connect to the existing Codex Desktop remote session and open chats normally.

Actual behavior

The mobile app sees stale/duplicate MacBook entries. One entry can list chats but returns 403 when opening a chat; the duplicate remains disconnected/offline.

Environment

• Account type: personal ChatGPT account, not Enterprise/Team/Edu
• macOS app: Codex Desktop
• Desktop app version: 26.513.31313
• app-server version reported by logs: 0.131.0-alpha.9
• runtime bundle selected by app: 26.515.10909

Local evidence gathered

• Local state has remote_control enabled.
• On the day it worked, logs show a remote-control websocket/server channel opening for /backend-api/wham/remote/control/server.
• On 2026-05-18, after restart with local remote_control=true, Desktop startup logs do not include remote_control in the enabled features list.
• Latest logs show unsupported feature enablement for auth_elicitation.
• Local sqlite state contains two remote_control_enrollments for the same MacBook/local hostname, consistent with the duplicate MacBook entries shown on mobile.
• Re-pairing via QR did not clear the stale/duplicate mobile state or the 403.

Notes

This does not look like an admin/workspace disabled-feature case because the account is personal and the local/mobile settings are enabled. It looks like a stale backend registration, personal-account feature flag mismatch, or Desktop/runtime version mismatch causing mobile to route to a stale remote-control server record.

I can provide redacted logs or environment/server IDs privately if useful.