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Codex Issues / #28524

Codex Desktop 26.609.71450 fails to hydrate existing local session and RAM reaches 99–100%

Resolved 💬 5 comments Opened Jun 16, 2026 by SocialK Closed Jun 19, 2026
💡 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)?

26.609.71450 About dialog shows: Version 26.609.71450 Released Jun 16, 2026

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11 Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64 Codex Desktop from Microsoft Store

What issue are you seeing?

After the Microsoft Store update from OpenAI Codex Windows App 26.609.4994.0 to 26.609.9530.0, the app can now open the main window, but it is still practically unusable.

This looks like a new or incomplete Windows Desktop App regression.

Environment:

  • Product: OpenAI Codex Windows Desktop App
  • Version: 26.609.9530.0
  • PackageFullName: OpenAI.Codex_26.609.9530.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
  • InstallLocation: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.609.9530.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
  • Package status: Ok
  • Platform: Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64
  • Subscription: ChatGPT Pro
  • Setup: native Windows / PowerShell
  • WSL is disabled / not used

Context:
This is a continuation of the previous Windows App issue I reported with 26.609.4994.0.

Before:

  • OpenAI.Codex_26.609.4994.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
  • The app did not open the main window properly.

After Microsoft Store update:

  • OpenAI.Codex_26.609.9530.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
  • The main window opens after 3 minutes waiting period, but the app immediately becomes extremely heavy and difficult to use.

Actual behavior:

  • Codex opens the main window.
  • it was 3 minute in a tray unresponsive, after it, RAM usage rises extremely high.
  • I observed RAM around 87–99% in Process Lasso / system overlay.
  • I had to close Codex manually because the machine became too loaded to work normally. (waited 15 min)
  • This did not happen about a month ago.
  • I did not intentionally resume the old queue before seeing the high memory pressure.
  • Codex appears to auto-load a previous project/thread/queue state on startup.
  • The UI shows a previous threads
  • The UI shows “Queue paused because you interrupted”.
  • The queue contains many old queued items. (in fact 10 days ago i deleted all my valuable old sessions expecting it could help and created new, projects and new chats and now it becomes one week old and it does not load up)
  • The UI becomes very slow / effectively unusable.
  • I cannot reliably start new work or continue existing work.

Expected behavior:

  • Codex should open normally after the update.
  • Startup should not push RAM to 87–99%.
  • The UI should remain responsive.
  • Previous queue/session state should not automatically make the app unusable.
  • There should be a safe way to stop, clear, or quarantine a broken local queue/session state without deleting all .codex data.
  • The app should not require deleting local history or sessions to recover from a bad state.

Diagnostics:

  • AppX package status is Ok.
  • CODEX_CLI_PATH is empty in User, Machine, and Process scopes.
  • Bundled codex.exe exists at:

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.609.9530.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\resources\codex.exe

  • Bundled codex.exe file exists and has size:

280,658,224 bytes

  • LastWriteTime:

6/12/2026 12:51:21 AM

  • Directly running the bundled codex.exe from PowerShell returns Access denied, likely because it is inside the protected WindowsApps package directory.
  • I searched local .codex session files and found many repeated matches inside:

C:\Users\myname.codex\sessions\2026\06\08\rollout-2026-06-08T23-29-25-019ea923-f0d4-7af0-bb96-2a041cff17e5.jsonl

  • The repeated matches include old queue/project/task content

Impact:
This is still a complete blocker.

I am paying for ChatGPT Pro, but I cannot use the Codex Windows Desktop App reliably. The previous build did not open correctly. The new build opens, but startup memory usage and old queue/session auto-loading make it unusable.

Request:
Please investigate Codex Windows App 26.609.9530.0 as a Windows Desktop App startup / memory / queue-state regression.

Please provide:

  • a working hotfix build,
  • a rollback path to a known stable Windows build,
  • a safe way to clear or quarantine a broken local queue/session state without deleting all .codex data,
  • a safe way to disable automatic queue/session restore on startup,
  • and guidance on how to collect useful logs without exposing private project data, auth files, or full session transcripts.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

  1. Launch Codex Desktop on Windows.
  2. Wait for the app to open. Cold start took approximately 3 minutes.
  3. Open an existing project from the sidebar.
  4. Open an existing thread (any I have more than 5)
  5. Observe that the main thread body does not load.
  6. Observe that the old queued prompts are still visible in the queue panel.
  7. Observe that the right panel shows “No artifacts yet” and “No sources yet”.
  8. Keep the thread open for a few minutes.
  9. RAM usage climbs from around 44% to 87%, then 99–100%.
  10. Close Codex to prevent the system from becoming fully unstable.

I did not press Resume

Laptop Asus Zenbook 14, i9-185h, 32gb ram
month's ago it was flied as a Ferrari that was soo good

What is the expected behavior?

_No response_

Additional information

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

5 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 2 months ago

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

  • #28440
  • #28392

Powered by Codex Action

SocialK · 2 months ago

Codex app starts after approximately 3 minutes. Version: 26.609.71450, released Jun 16, 2026. Existing project and thread are visible. The old queued prompts are visible, but the historical session body does not load. Outputs and Sources are empty. RAM climbs from ~44% to ~87% while the thread remains blank. I did not press Resume. This looks like a thread hydration / indexing / rendering failure rather than a missing project.

SocialK · 2 months ago

Update after installing the latest Microsoft Store build:

Current versions observed:

  • Microsoft Store / Windows package version:

OpenAI.Codex 26.611.7849.0
PackageFullName: OpenAI.Codex_26.611.7849.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0

  • In-app About Codex dialog:

Version 26.611.61049 • Released Jun 16, 2026

Result after the update:

The application now opens, which is the only visible improvement compared to the previous update where the app did not open properly.

However, none of the main regressions appear to be fixed:

  1. Startup is still very slow.

Codex now takes around 20 seconds to open. Around one month ago, it opened almost instantly.

  1. The application still lags.

The user interface is still noticeably sluggish. Around one month ago, the app was responsive and did not lag like this.

  1. Old sessions still do not load.

Sessions from around one week ago fail to open.

  1. Opening old sessions still causes severe memory pressure.

When trying to open older sessions, system memory usage goes up to around 90% Random Access Memory (RAM).

  1. This is a major regression compared to the previous working behavior.

Around one month ago, everything was fast and stable. Even a very large session/history state of around 50 GB could load in seconds.

Conclusion:

Version 26.611 improves only the basic startup failure: the app window can now open.

But the core issues are still present:

  • slow startup
  • laggy user interface
  • old sessions not loading
  • severe Random Access Memory (RAM) growth when trying to load old sessions, visibly CPU loads more +10-15% now.

From my side, this version does not fix the regression introduced in the recent Windows desktop updates. It only changes the failure mode from “the app does not open properly” to “the app opens, but is still slow, laggy, and unable to load existing sessions safely.”

SocialK · 2 months ago

Update after installing the latest Microsoft Store package:

Current versions:

  • Microsoft Store / Windows package version:

OpenAI.Codex 26.611.8604.0
PackageFullName: OpenAI.Codex_26.611.8604.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0

  • In-app About Codex dialog:

Version 26.611.62324 • Released Jun 17, 2026

Retest result:

There is a partial improvement, but the core regression is still not fixed.

Improved:

  • Startup time improved from around 20 seconds to around 5 seconds.
  • The device heats less than on the previous build.
  • Initial memory pressure is slightly lower: around 85–86% RAM during the first 1–2 minutes instead of immediately going to 99%.

Still broken:

  • After around 2 minutes, RAM climbs back to 95–99%.
  • CPU is still elevated, around 30–40%.
  • The app UI flickers.
  • The left sidebar sometimes disappears and quickly reappears.
  • Projects are still visible, but chats/sessions from previous versions are empty or inaccessible.
  • Old sessions still do not open.
  • Existing work history remains effectively inaccessible.
  • The app is still not usable for real work.

Additional problem:

  • The app is now so laggy that I cannot reliably submit a feedback/report from inside Codex itself.
  • I have to report this externally through GitHub / Support instead of using the in-app feedback flow.

Conclusion:
This build appears to improve startup performance, but it does not fix the Windows local session/history loading regression. The remaining symptoms still point to local session/history loading, indexing, migration, renderer hydration, or memory management issues.

Please attach this update to the relevant internal tracking item and escalate it to the Windows desktop/session-history engineering team.

SocialK · 2 months ago

Please allow us rollout on a month's old build and pause updates, and then fix it as long as you want