Chats under Project Folders intermittently become stale/disappear, requiring restore and re-consuming context/tokens

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

26.527.60818

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro 20x

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

019e86b4-f326-7590-b938-edd4d3f04b8a

I’m seeing repeated data-integrity behavior with Codex chats in Project Folders: active or recently used chats become “stale” and disappear from the normal project chat list. I then have to use the restore flow to bring them back. This causes loss of continuity and extra token usage, especially during longer work sessions.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Open Codex Desktop on Windows.
2. Work inside a Project Folder workspace.
3. Return to the project after switching folders/tasks or after some inactivity.
4. Observe that one or more previous chats are no longer visible as expected, or appear marked stale/inconsistent.
5. Open a missing thread from restore UI (or from an older state).
6. Continue work; note this often repeats.

What is the expected behavior?

Chats under a Project Folder should remain visible and current.
No unexpected staleness/disappearance.
No need to restore existing threads to continue context.

Additional information

Codex Project Folders Chat Staleness / Disappearance Report
=========================================================

App version:

• OS: Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64
• ChatGPT Pro tier: 20x
• Codex Version: 26.527.60818

Key Specs:

• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Home
• OS Version: 10.0.26200 Build 26200
• System: KEVIN (x64-based PC)
• Manufacturer/Model: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC., ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503QR_GA503QR
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS with Radeon Graphics (8 cores, 16 threads)
• BIOS: American Megatrends International, LLC. GA503QR.416 (08/11/2023)
• RAM: 40.0 GB installed, 39.4 GB physical total
• BaseBoard: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC., GA503QR
• Secure Boot: On
• Virtualization-based security: Running
• GPU (resource listing): AMD Radeon Graphics and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU present

Any Console/Developer logs around the time of disappearance:
Collect Codex console/developer logs at the moment a thread becomes stale/disappears and paste relevant timestamped snippets.

Screenshot of stale/missing-thread state and restore screen:
Attach screenshots showing:
1) stale/missing-thread state in project folders
2) restore screen for affected thread(s)

Whether the project path changed/moved/renamed (network/synced folder involved?):
No manual path migration was reported for this run. Current project path at time of writing:
C:\Users\kevin\Documents\Codex\2026-06-03\chats-under-project-folders-suddenly-turn
If any rename/move/sync-folder migration occurred (OneDrive/Dropbox/Drive), list exact dates and paths.

Whether this happens after restart, idle timeout, or switching projects:

• [ ] After app restart
• [ ] After idle timeout
• [ ] After switching projects
• [x] Reproducible without confirmed single trigger so far (intermittent during active workflow)

Additional context:

• Date observed: 2026-06-03
• OS: Windows
• Timezone: Asia/Singapore

Issue summary (for issue body):
Chats in Project Folders intermittently appear stale/disappear, then require restore to resume. This causes continuity breaks and repeated token loss.

Impact estimate:

• Restore loop metrics from this same session log:
• Restore-related task completions captured: 20
• Successful restore completions (direct "Restored..." outcomes): 16
• Restore/repair elapsed wall-clock window: 12h 21m 58s
• Assistant runtime in those 16 successful restorations (sum of task duration_ms): 17m 09s
• If including the additional non-final restore-investigation task_completes (17:10, 17:13, 17:24), total assistant task runtime: 23m 37s
• Token usage:
• Session token_count telemetry is cumulative by event and includes cached tokens, so per-turn exact billing can't be extracted directly.
• Logged total-token delta across the full restore/recovery window (2026-06-02T05:07:04Z to 2026-06-02T17:30:25Z): 14,601,423 total tokens
• Input token delta: 14,556,618
• Output token delta: 44,805
• Cached input delta: 13,181,184
• Practical burn estimate:
• Conservative, visible work window = ~15 million total token events and ~12h 22m of back-and-forth restore activity.

Feedback ID:
019e86b4-f326-7590-b938-edd4d3f04b8a

AI Restorer restore count from this session ID:

• Total successful restore completions captured in this session log: 16
• Restores that happened on local date 2026-06-03 (Asia/Singapore): 13

Restore timestamps (UTC ? SGT / local) from session log:

• 2026-06-02T05:07:04.926Z -> 2026-06-02T13:07:04 (turn 019e86b6-6af7-79a0-98c6-b2a1b4d8a585)
• 2026-06-02T09:01:56.974Z -> 2026-06-02T17:01:56 (turn 019e8790-8a18-70d2-8cb3-3509e00560f7)
• 2026-06-02T09:04:29.338Z -> 2026-06-02T17:04:29 (turn 019e8792-82f4-7203-8ae7-c760926d67ab)
• 2026-06-02T09:13:19.570Z -> 2026-06-02T17:13:19 (turn 019e879b-aeae-7133-855c-460e7665278b)
• 2026-06-02T16:59:23.230Z -> 2026-06-03T00:59:23 (turn 019e8944-dc05-7fe0-b304-86c89e114268)
• 2026-06-02T17:00:44.843Z -> 2026-06-03T01:00:44 (turn 019e8946-8f20-7611-aea9-0759f6d3ec06)
• 2026-06-02T17:02:41.628Z -> 2026-06-03T01:02:41 (turn 019e8947-cdde-7ca1-95be-df9b63656d63)
• 2026-06-02T17:05:17.162Z -> 2026-06-03T01:05:17 (turn 019e894b-61d0-7e73-8527-cfe5d414bb7e)
• 2026-06-02T17:14:04.150Z -> 2026-06-03T01:14:04 (turn 019e8953-5318-7b73-8cdf-c25a7de1b450)
• 2026-06-02T17:16:08.409Z -> 2026-06-03T01:16:08 (turn 019e8955-84f6-7182-a309-db162d23ba74)
• 2026-06-02T17:18:27.250Z -> 2026-06-03T01:18:27 (turn 019e8957-c3f5-7571-bcca-48280fb14492)
• 2026-06-02T17:19:09.105Z -> 2026-06-03T01:19:09 (turn 019e8958-624b-7312-9e1e-3ce13f3cf4b2)
• 2026-06-02T17:20:52.875Z -> 2026-06-03T01:20:52 (turn 019e8959-915d-7703-b609-9695f066b81c)
• 2026-06-02T17:21:40.263Z -> 2026-06-03T01:21:40 (turn 019e895a-87d8-76d1-aca2-8c53cc0c8d40)
• 2026-06-02T17:22:33.856Z -> 2026-06-03T01:22:33 (turn 019e895b-7317-72a2-ad8d-441e29798f31)
• 2026-06-02T17:26:27.749Z -> 2026-06-03T01:26:27 (turn 019e895e-ab36-7f21-aae5-f040a863dbf1)
• 2026-06-02T17:29:03.114Z -> 2026-06-03T01:29:03 (turn 019e8961-3475-7cc3-9bfd-87c940fb7f30)

Notes for impact estimates:

• How many restore events: 16 (from 05:07:04Z to 17:29:03Z, same session)
• Tokens spent:
• Not directly logged in session export. I can cite only the restore event count from this evidence.
• If you want, we can add a rough estimate once you provide your average restore duration and token-per-restore approximation.
• Time spent (wall-clock):
• Total window from first to last restore event in this session: ~12h 21m 58s (spread, not all active user time).
• On a strict restore-only basis, 16 restores is the measurable count.

Session ID:
019e896f-5afe-7a92-809b-ec814255b924

chats-project-folder-staleness.evidence-main.txt