Codex mobile stale Remote Control host cannot be removed after Mac hostname change / codex feedback : no-active-thread-019e3bc9-0329-7672-9add-4731a5fccc86

Open 💬 2 comments Opened May 18, 2026 by habicll

💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

26.515.10909

What subscription do you have?

chatgpt pro

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.3.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

The ChatGPT iOS app keeps showing an old Codex Desktop Remote Control host named “MacBook-Air.local” as offline, even though my current Mac is now “MacBook-Air-2.local”.

The stale host cannot be fully removed from the iPhone app. I can only “Disconnect” it, but scanning a new QR code from Codex macOS redirects me back to the same stale/offline host instead of creating a new Remote Control connection.

On macOS, Codex Remote Control is running correctly, and the Mac shows no devices under “Devices that control this Mac”. So the Mac does not recognize the iPhone connection anymore, but the iPhone still keeps the old host.

Opening existing Codex mobile conversations fails with:

403
43f3fd1a-627c-4f92-9876-eef65a4bb594

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Pair ChatGPT iOS with Codex macOS Remote Control using a Mac hostname such as “MacBook-Air.local”.
Change the Mac hostname later, for example from “MacBook-Air.local” to “MacBook-Air-2.local”.
Open ChatGPT iOS → Codex.
Observe that the old host “MacBook-Air.local” still appears as offline.
Try to disconnect/remove the stale host from the iPhone app.
Open Codex macOS → Settings → Connections → Set up Codex mobile.
Scan the new QR code with the iPhone.
Observe that ChatGPT iOS redirects back to the stale/offline “MacBook-Air.local” host instead of creating a new connection.
Try opening an existing Codex mobile conversation.
Observe a 403 error.

What is the expected behavior?

my mac is connected and I can have access to my conversations with codex on my mobile

Additional information

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

2 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 3 months ago

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

#23290
#22714
#23078
#23303
#22781

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Snailflyer · 3 months ago

The hostname-change detail is a useful discriminator. This may not be only a stale visual label in the mobile app.

I would expect the pairing model to keep separate identities for:

display name / host name, which can legitimately change;
installation id or host identity, which should survive a rename;
environment id, which may be regenerated;
mobile client/device id, which should be able to forget a host.

If a hostname rename causes the iPhone to keep resolving QR setup back to the old offline host, then some part of the mobile/backend association is probably keyed to stale host identity rather than treating the new QR as an authoritative rebind.

A useful recovery path would be an explicit "forget this desktop" action on mobile plus a desktop-side "regenerate mobile host identity" action. Without that, users are forced into broad local resets even though the actual issue is likely one stale association.