Codex macOS app update lost local conversation history from sidebar while sessions still exist locally
What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?
The ChatGPT macOS app shows version 26.723.12215 in settings, while the installed bundle version from Info.plist is 26.721.41059. The app also shows "Reset and reinstall workspace" in Codex settings.
What subscription do you have?
ChatGPT Pro
What platform is your computer?
25.5.0 arm64 arm
What issue are you seeing?
After a Codex macOS app update and the recent Codex service outage/recovery, my previous project conversation history disappeared from the Codex UI.
The issue:
- Projects are still visible.
- Local project folders and files are intact.
- New conversations can be created, but old conversations before the update/outage are missing from the sidebar.
- New conversations sometimes get stuck on "Reconnecting 1/5".
I verified that the local data still exists:
- ~/.codex/sessions contains previous rollout JSONL files.
Example:
~/.codex/sessions/2026/07/21/rollout-xxxx.jsonl
- ~/.codex/state_5.sqlite contains historical threads.
The threads table contains previous conversations.
- ~/.codex/session_index.jsonl contains previous conversation IDs and titles.
Actions tried:
- Restarted Codex
- Reinstalled Codex App
- Restored ~/.codex from backup
- Restored session_index.jsonl
- Restored state_5.sqlite
- Cleared Codex cache
The local conversation data exists, but Codex App does not display previous sessions in the sidebar.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
- Use ChatGPT macOS app with Codex enabled.
- Update the app / Codex environment after the recent Codex service outage.
- Open Codex projects that were previously used before the update.
- Observe that project folders are still available, but previous conversation history is missing from the sidebar.
- Create a new conversation in an existing project. New conversations appear normally, but previous conversations are not displayed.
Additional verification:
- The previous conversations still exist locally:
- ~/.codex/sessions contains old rollout JSONL files.
- ~/.codex/state_5.sqlite contains historical threads.
- ~/.codex/session_index.jsonl contains previous thread IDs and titles.
- Reinstalling the ChatGPT app does not restore the missing conversations.
What is the expected behavior?
Previously created Codex conversations should remain visible inside their corresponding projects after an app update or service recovery.
The app should load existing local Codex sessions and display previous conversation history in the project sidebar.
Additional information
Environment details:
- macOS ChatGPT app:
Bundle version: 26.721.41059
Internal app version shown in settings: 26.723.12215
- The issue started after the recent Codex service outage/recovery and app update.
- Local data verification:
- state_5.sqlite contains historical threads.
- session_index.jsonl contains previous conversation IDs.
- rollout JSONL files are present under ~/.codex/sessions.
The problem appears to be that the ChatGPT/Codex app does not rebuild or display the existing local conversation index.
1 Comment
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
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