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Codex Issues / #28684

Codex Desktop on macOS 26.5.1 launches with 100% CPU but creates 0 windows

Open 💬 6 comments Opened Jun 17, 2026 by bundoon
💡 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)?

Codex Desktop 149.0.7827.115 Codex CLI 0.140.0

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

What platform is your computer?

Apple Silicon Mac (arm64) macOS 26.5.1 (Build 25F80)

What issue are you seeing?

The Codex Desktop app launches but never creates a window.

The process starts successfully and appears in the process list. macOS recognises it as a foreground application, but System Events reports 0 windows.

The main Codex process consumes approximately 100% CPU indefinitely.

The Codex CLI works normally.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

  1. Install Codex Desktop via Homebrew cask.
  2. Launch Codex.app.
  3. No window appears.
  4. Verify with:

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to tell process "Codex" to count windows'

Result: 0

  1. Verify process usage:

ps -o pid,%cpu,command -p $(pgrep -x Codex)

Result: approximately 100% CPU usage.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex Desktop should open its main application window and become usable.

A visible window should be created when the application launches.

Additional information

Troubleshooting already performed:

  • Reinstalled Codex Desktop completely.
  • Removed:

~/Library/Application Support/Codex
~/Library/Saved Application State/com.openai.codex.savedState
~/Library/Preferences/com.openai.codex.plist

  • Disabled GPU:

open -a Codex --args --disable-gpu

  • Fresh profile recreated automatically.
  • No crash reports generated.
  • System Events continues to report 0 windows.
  • Codex CLI 0.140.0 works correctly.
  • App process remains running at approximately 100% CPU.

Process sample shows the application sitting in ChromeMain / CFRunLoop rather than crashing.

codex-sample.txt

View original on GitHub ↗

6 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 1 month ago

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

  • #27497
  • #27298
  • #28178

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karlthefirst3 · 24 days ago

I’m seeing what appears to be the same or a closely related Codex Desktop hang on macOS.

Environment:

  • MacBook Pro with M1 Max
  • macOS 15.7.4
  • Codex app: 26.623.30605
  • Codex Framework: 149.0.7827.157
  • Standalone Codex app

Regression:

  • Codex worked reliably on this same Mac until the last few days.
  • This appears to be a recent regression, not a first-install issue.

Symptoms:

  • Codex launches far enough that the macOS menu bar switches to Codex.
  • No usable Codex window appears.
  • The app immediately beachballs.
  • The Codex menu bar pull-downs also beachball and cannot be opened.
  • The app does not appear to crash; it remains running but unusable.

Reproduction / trigger:

  • Codex works normally for a while.
  • I leave agents running while away.
  • Agents often continue working, then hit a stop point / permissions gate / await input.
  • After overnight idle/locked screen, Codex is beachballing in the morning.
  • I have also reproduced similar behavior after closing/reopening the MacBook lid.
  • The issue is not limited to manually closing the lid; it also happened after simply locking the screen overnight.

Recovery attempts:

  • Force Quit alone does not reliably fix it.
  • Rebooting the Mac does not reliably fix it.
  • Reinstalling Codex temporarily restored access once, but the issue returned.
  • A new install/update later also beachballed again.

Attached:

  • macOS Sample Process report taken while Codex was hung.

Notable from sample:

  • Codex had been running overnight, launched around 9:00 PM and sampled around 7:30 AM.
  • Process was alive, not crashed.
  • Physical footprint was around 1.4 GB.
  • Main thread appeared to be in the normal AppKit event loop, but the UI was completely unresponsive.

Codex Sample.txt.rtf

karlthefirst3 · 24 days ago

Additional findings after further debugging:

  • This is reproducible on a MacBook Pro (M1 Max) running macOS 15.7.4.
  • The issue began only within the last few days; Codex had been working reliably on this same machine before then.
  • Rebooting the Mac and reinstalling Codex (including updating to Codex Framework 149.0.7827.157) did not resolve the issue.
  • When launched from Terminal, the backend appears to initialize normally (app server starts, transport connects, state reaches "connecting") with no obvious startup errors.
  • macOS reports no Codex windows (System Events returns zero windows), and no usable UI is ever created.
  • The Codex menu bar becomes active, but attempting to use any Codex menu immediately results in a beachball.
  • While the app is in this state, ps -ef | grep "Codex Helper" shows no Codex Helper processes other than the grep command itself.
  • I've attached a macOS Sample Process captured while the application was hung.

Happy to collect any additional diagnostics or test a development build if it would help isolate the regression.

karlthefirst3 · 24 days ago

I performed the requested ~/.codex isolation test.

Renaming ~/.codex to ~/.codex.bak allows Codex to launch normally.

However, my existing agents, sessions, and local state are no longer present in the fresh profile. Before I restore anything, I'd like guidance on whether there is a way to preserve or migrate my existing data while avoiding the startup hang. I still have the original ~/.codex.bak folder intact and have not modified it.

karlthefirst3 · 24 days ago

sorry that last was for the support team. will paste there as well.

git-bahadir · 19 days ago

Has there been any developments regarding this issue? I have the exact same problem