›_ Codex Issues
Codex Issues / #23999

Codex Desktop sidebar chat history disappears and latest update does not restore hidden chats

Open 💬 12 comments Opened May 22, 2026 by GGBondBlueWhale
💡 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?

Codex Desktop 26.519.31651 (3017)

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

  • macOS Tahoe 26.5
  • MacBook Pro 16-inch
  • Apple M5 Max
  • 128 GB memory

What issue are you seeing?

The left sidebar chat history in Codex Desktop can still disappear unexpectedly after some time. After it disappears, I cannot directly find or recover those chats inside the Codex app.

I have already updated to the latest available Codex Desktop version, but the chat histories that disappeared in previous versions still have not been restored.

This is urgent and high impact because those conversations contain important project context. Without them, I cannot normally continue work in Codex Desktop.

My current belief is that many of these chats are still saved locally and are not actually deleted. The app appears to fail to correctly discover, index, associate, or display the existing local chat/thread records in the sidebar.

Expected behavior

  • Existing chat history should remain visible in the left sidebar after updates, restarts, and normal app usage.
  • Previously hidden/disappeared chats should be recoverable if their local data still exists.
  • Codex Desktop should provide an official recovery or re-indexing mechanism for local chat history.

Request

Please treat this as a priority reliability issue. It is very frustrating that a long-standing session/sidebar history bug still remains unresolved across multiple Codex Desktop versions.

New features are useful, but core reliability must come first. Please fix these older sidebar/session-history regressions and provide a way to restore previously disappeared local chats instead of leaving users unable to continue existing work.

<img width="614" height="2000" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0bd25cf4-59af-4a77-9163-5e79ae9484a6" />

View original on GitHub ↗

12 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 3 months ago

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

  • #23979
  • #22619
  • #22592
  • #23900
  • #23825

Powered by Codex Action

SudoCerb · 3 months ago

This is a serious issue. I have been experiencing the same

congxu03 · 3 months ago

same here

shuiguojiao · 3 months ago

same issue

Rockingly · 3 months ago

Ditto...

nine19een · 2 months ago

same issue

chilohwei · 2 months ago

same issue, please fix it.

octadion · 1 month ago

same issue

xandret-cinzia · 1 month ago

same issue

dimasyankauskas · 1 month ago

I can add a concrete macOS trace where a hidden task directly caused expensive duplicate execution.

Environment:

  • ChatGPT Pro
  • macOS 26.5.2, arm64
  • ChatGPT desktop / Codex originator
  • Incident runtime recorded in rollout metadata: codex-cli 0.145.0-alpha.30
  • Current app after a later update: 26.721.31836 (build 5828), embedded codex-cli 0.146.0-alpha.3.1

Observed sequence on July 22-23, 2026:

  1. The same 12,718-byte prompt attachment was created three times; SHA-256 confirms the bytes are identical.
  2. The first attachment (July 22 19:27 PDT) has no corresponding root rollout file.
  3. The next submission created root task 019f8e0c-10af-7830-ba31-21364db4a39b plus three child tasks. The rollout still exists locally. Direct lookup by ID can read it, but its task status is notLoaded and it was not discoverable in the normal recent task view when the user returned.
  4. Believing the task had disappeared, the user submitted the identical prompt again. That created root task 019f9020-6a9e-7962-933c-739f88197932 plus three more child tasks.
  5. Direct lookup by ID can still read both root tasks. This is therefore a visibility/discovery failure, not deletion of the second saved rollout.

The practical impact is larger than lost continuity: these two starts logged 7,118,356 raw model tokens combined because each root automatically launched three Sol/Ultra children. The user paid the execution cost twice for the same prompt.

This looks consistent with the recent-window / pagination / project-group discovery family described here. It may also be relevant that CLI 0.145 introduced experimental paginated thread history. A supported full-history search and reindex path would prevent users from rerunning tasks that still exist.

KefanXIAO · 23 days ago

same issue. have it been fixed yet?

BoykaHe · 21 days ago

I've met same problem