Codex Desktop file preview turns blank/white for previous-day conversations while local files still open normally

Codex Desktop bug report: historical file previews turn blank/white even when local files still exist

Summary

Codex Desktop's built-in file preview pane becomes blank/white when opening files from previous-day conversations. The same local files still exist on disk and can be opened normally with external apps, but Codex's internal preview renders an empty white page/panel.

Environment

• App: Codex Desktop
• Codex App version: 26.616.32156 (4157)
• Bundled Codex CLI version: codex-cli 0.142.0-alpha.1
• Bundle identifier: com.openai.codex
• OS: macOS 26.5, build 25F71
• Architecture: arm64
• Date observed: 2026-06-19

What issue is happening?

When I reopen a Codex conversation from the previous day and click file cards or generated document/image links, the built-in Codex preview panel often opens but shows only a blank white page. This happens for different file types, including documents/presentations and images.

The issue is not that the file is missing or corrupted:

• The file still exists at the referenced local path.
• The file can be opened directly outside Codex, for example with Finder, Preview, PowerPoint, or other native apps.
• The blank screen is limited to Codex's built-in preview UI.

Example current evidence:

• Screenshot showing the white internal preview: /var/folders/7b/jp9rz59d5_g879v2lxgwssgr0000gn/T/codex-clipboard-cf8cbe1e-f5d7-4749-9c34-479ed036c644.png
• That screenshot file still exists locally and is readable.

Steps to reproduce

1. Use Codex Desktop on macOS to generate or attach files in a conversation, such as PPTX, Markdown, document, or image files.
2. Confirm the files are visible as file cards / links in the Codex conversation and can be previewed immediately.
3. Wait until the next day, or reopen Codex the next day.
4. Open the previous-day conversation.
5. Click the same file card or file link.
6. Observe that Codex's built-in preview panel opens but displays a blank white page/panel.
7. Open the same file directly from its local path outside Codex.
8. Observe that the file opens normally outside Codex.

Expected behavior

Codex should render the file preview again, or if the built-in preview is unavailable, show a clear actionable error such as:

• local file permission expired
• preview cache expired
• preview renderer crashed
• preview type unsupported
• file must be opened externally

Actual behavior

The internal preview shows a blank white panel with no useful error message, while the underlying local file remains valid and externally openable.

Why this seems like a Codex app regression

This did not happen previously in my workflow. The behavior appears after reopening older conversations, especially across days. It looks like Codex is retaining a stale preview reference/cache, or the file preview renderer is failing to rehydrate local file access for historical conversation attachments.

Related notes

• This is different from a missing file problem.
• This is different from a damaged file problem.
• This affects the Codex Desktop built-in preview layer specifically.
• Restarting Codex may temporarily help in some cases, but the problem appears to recur with previous-day conversations.

Logs

Codex app logs are available locally under:

~/Library/Logs/com.openai.codex/YYYY/MM/DD

I can provide logs after reviewing them for sensitive information.