Codex Desktop regression: conversations from removed projects reappear under Tasks / projectless area after the multi-folder workspace update

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

26.721.31836

What subscription do you have?

20x Pro

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.3.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

Summary

After updating Codex Desktop to the latest version released around July 23, 2026, old conversations associated with previously removed local projects unexpectedly reappeared in the global Tasks / projectless conversation area.

In previous versions, removing a project from Codex Desktop caused its conversations to stop appearing in the UI, while the underlying conversation data remained intact.

After the recent project/workspace update, Codex appears to rescan those historical conversations and display them again as projectless tasks or temporary tasks.

This results in a large number of old conversations suddenly reappearing in the sidebar.

Environment

• Codex Desktop version: [enter version from About Codex]
• Bundled Codex CLI version: [enter version if available]
• Platform: [macOS / Windows]
• OS version: [enter OS version]
• Date first observed: July 24, 2026
• Subscription: [Plus / Pro / Team / other]

Steps to reproduce

1. Add a local folder as a project in Codex Desktop.
2. Create multiple conversations inside that project.
3. Remove the project from Codex Desktop.
4. Confirm that the conversations from the removed project no longer appear in the sidebar.
5. Update Codex Desktop to the version released around July 23, 2026.
6. Restart Codex Desktop.
7. Open the global Tasks or projectless conversation area.

Actual behavior

Conversations belonging to previously removed projects reappear in the UI.

They are no longer grouped under their original project and instead appear together under the global Tasks / temporary task / projectless area.

In my case, many historical conversations from removed projects appeared at once after the update.

Some of these conversations may look like previously archived conversations, although it is unclear whether they were actually archived in the underlying state or were previously hidden only because their project had been removed.

Expected behavior

Removing a project should not cause its historical conversations to be silently reassigned to the global Tasks or projectless area after an application update.

The application should do one of the following:

1. Keep conversations from removed projects hidden, matching the previous behavior.
2. Ask the user whether orphaned conversations should be restored or reassigned.
3. Restore the original project association when the project folder is added again.
4. Clearly identify them as conversations from a removed project instead of mixing them into normal Tasks.

Why this appears to be a regression

The behavior started after the recent update that introduced or expanded multi-folder local projects and workspace-style project handling.

The new version appears to maintain project state through fields or concepts such as:

• local projects
• project ordering
• selected project
• active workspace roots
• multiple folders per project

My suspicion is that conversations whose original project association can no longer be resolved are now being treated as projectless threads and surfaced in the Tasks area.

This is only a hypothesis, but the timing strongly suggests that the issue is related to the updated project/workspace association logic.

Impact

• Large numbers of old conversations suddenly clutter the sidebar.
• Users cannot easily distinguish current Tasks from conversations belonging to removed projects.
• Users may incorrectly assume that archived conversations were unarchived.
• Users may archive conversations again and accidentally change their real state.
• Project and conversation organization becomes unreliable after updating.

Additional observations

• The conversations themselves do not appear to be lost.
• This looks more like a project-association, indexing, migration, or sidebar-rendering problem.
• Re-archiving the conversations manually makes them disappear, but this may not be a safe workaround because the original archived state is unknown.
• The issue may only affect users who previously removed projects containing multiple conversations.
• It may be related to orphaned or projectless thread migration during the recent update.

Requested investigation

Please check whether the recent project/workspace migration:

1. Reindexes conversations from removed projects.
2. Clears or fails to resolve their original project association.
3. Adds them to the projectless thread list.
4. Ignores their previous visibility or archived state.
5. Surfaces them under Tasks without user confirmation.

It would also be helpful to provide a safe “reindex conversations” or “restore project associations” function that does not require users to modify local databases or state files manually.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Open the Codex (ChatGPT) desktop app.
2. Add a local folder as a project.
3. Create multiple conversations inside that project.
4. Remove the project from the Codex app, without deleting the project folder or any local conversation data.
5. Confirm that the conversations from the removed project are no longer visible in the sidebar.
6. Update Codex Desktop to the latest version released around July 23, 2026.
7. Fully quit and reopen the Codex app.
8. Open the global Tasks, temporary tasks, or projectless conversation area.
9. The historical conversations from the removed project reappear in the list, but they are no longer associated with their original project.

In my case, a large number of historical conversations reappeared at once after the update.

No executable code is required to reproduce this issue because it appears to be related to Codex Desktop project migration, conversation indexing, and persisted UI state.

Equivalent reproduction flow:

Create local project A
  → Create multiple conversations in project A
  → Remove project A from Codex
  → Its conversations disappear from the UI
  → Update Codex Desktop
  → Restart the app
  → Conversations from project A reappear under Tasks / projectless conversations

The issue does not appear to depend on conversation length, token usage, or context-window usage.

• Session ID: I could not find a location in the UI where the affected session ID can be copied
• Token limit usage: Not applicable
• Context window usage: Not applicable
• Codex Desktop version: [enter the complete version shown in About Codex]
• Operating system: [enter Windows or macOS version]

What is the expected behavior?

After a project is removed from Codex, its historical conversations should not be silently reassigned to the global Tasks, temporary tasks, or projectless conversation area after an application update.

The expected behavior should be one of the following:

1. Keep the conversations hidden, matching the behavior before the update.
2. Restore their original project association when the original folder is added again.
3. Ask the user for confirmation before converting or exposing them as projectless conversations.
4. Clearly label them as conversations from a removed project instead of mixing them with normal Tasks.
5. Conversations that were archived must remain archived and must not reappear in the active conversation list because of project migration or reindexing.

Additional information

This issue started after Codex Desktop updated its project and workspace model. The latest version appears to support multiple folders in one project and treats projects more like workspaces.

My suspicion is that the migration or reindexing process can no longer resolve the original project association for these historical conversations. As a result, they may be classified as projectless threads and displayed in the Tasks area.

Some of the conversations that reappeared may previously have been archived, but it is currently unclear whether:

• their archived state was actually removed;
• they were only hidden in previous versions because their project had been removed;
• or the new version resurfaced them after failing to resolve their original project association.

The conversation content itself does not appear to be lost. This looks more like one of the following:

• incorrect project-to-thread migration;
• incorrect projectless-thread classification;
• archived-state filtering regression;
• stale sidebar indexing or cache state;
• regression in the handling of orphaned conversations after removing a project.

Manually archiving the conversations again makes them disappear, but this is not a safe workaround because the user cannot determine whether those conversations were already archived before the update.

Please investigate whether the latest migration logic:

1. Rescans conversations belonging to removed projects;
2. Loses or fails to resolve their original project association;
3. Adds those conversations to the projectless-thread list;
4. Fails to preserve or correctly read their archived state;
5. Surfaces them under Tasks without user confirmation.