Conversation becomes permanently unusable after hitting 50 image limit

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

26.623.141536

What subscription do you have?

Interprise

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.5.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

After a conversation reaches the 50-image request limit, the conversation becomes permanently unusable.

Once the error

Exceeded maximum number of images (50) allowed in the request.

is returned, every subsequent prompt fails with the same error, even when the prompt contains only text (for example, hey).

I manually compacted the conversation after hitting the limit, and the conversation displayed "Context compacted", but subsequent text-only prompts still failed with the same error.

Restarting the Codex App did not resolve the issue. The conversation could not be recovered and had to be abandoned.

I've attached screenshots showing:

• the initial 50-image limit error,
• a text-only prompt failing with the same error,
• "Context compacted" followed by the same error again.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Start a long-running conversation in the Codex App.
2. Upload enough screenshots/images throughout the conversation to reach the image request limit.
3. Receive the error:

Exceeded maximum number of images (50) allowed in the request.

1. Send a text-only prompt (for example, hey).

1. Observe that the same error is returned immediately.

1. Manually compact the conversation.

1. Send another text-only prompt.

1. Observe that the same error continues to occur, even after context compaction.

1. Quit and restart the Codex App.

1. Open the same conversation and send another text-only prompt.

1. Observe that the conversation still cannot be used and returns the same error.

What is the expected behavior?

Once the image limit has been reached, the conversation should remain usable.

Either:

• text-only prompts should continue to work without including previous image references, or
• context compaction should remove or summarize old image references so the conversation can continue.

The conversation should be recoverable without creating a new chat.

Additional information

Additional observations:

• The conversation displayed "Context compacted" after I manually compacted it, but the issue persisted.
• Every subsequent prompt, including simple text-only prompts such as hey, immediately failed with the same "Exceeded maximum number of images (50) allowed in the request." error.
• Restarting the Codex App did not resolve the issue.
• The issue appears to affect only the existing conversation. Creating a new conversation is the only workaround, but it requires abandoning all accumulated context from the original session.
• I have attached screenshots showing the initial error, the failed text-only prompt, and the conversation after context compaction.