Windows Remote connection causes codex.exe app-server private memory to grow continuously until system exhaustion; mobile remains stuck “Looking for ChatGPT desktop…”
What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?
Powered by Codex & OWL Version 26.803.41515
What subscription do you have?
PRO
What platform is your computer?
windows
What issue are you seeing?
Summary
On Windows, attempting to use ChatGPT Remote causes the local codex.exe app-server process to continuously consume increasing amounts of private memory, CPU, and disk I/O.
The Windows desktop app successfully completes pairing and displays “You’re connected”, but the ChatGPT mobile app never completes the connection. The mobile Remote screen detects the Windows host but remains indefinitely on:
“Looking for ChatGPT desktop…”
While the mobile app is stuck, the Windows codex.exe app-server continuously allocates memory. I have observed it grow beyond 26 GB RAM, eventually driving total system memory usage to approximately 96% and making the computer nearly unusable.
Environment
OS: Windows
ChatGPT desktop app: Windows
Desktop package observed:
OpenAI.Codex_26.803.5235.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
Codex app-server command line:
"...\codex.exe" -c features.code_mode_host=true app-server --analytics-default-enabled
Host RAM: 32 GB
Remote client: ChatGPT mobile app
Host and mobile are signed into the same ChatGPT account.
Steps to reproduce
Start ChatGPT desktop on Windows.
Allow the app to settle at normal idle memory usage.
Open Settings → Connections → Control this PC.
Enable Allow connections.
Select Add device and pair the mobile device.
Desktop completes the flow and displays “You’re connected.”
Open Remote in the ChatGPT mobile app.
Mobile sees the Windows host but remains indefinitely on “Looking for ChatGPT desktop…”.
Observe codex.exe app-server in Task Manager or PowerShell.
Actual result
The codex.exe app-server begins continuously consuming more memory and CPU while the Remote connection never becomes usable.
During one reproduction, Task Manager showed the ChatGPT/Codex workload progressively increasing through approximately:
5 GB RAM
8.8 GB RAM
10.1 GB RAM
11.1 GB RAM
13+ GB RAM
eventually approximately 26.5 GB RAM
Disk activity reached approximately 120–185 MB/s, and CPU utilization became very high.
The computer eventually reaches severe memory pressure and may become effectively unusable.
Direct process measurements
The runaway memory is owned by the main codex.exe process itself, not merely attributed to its Task Manager process group.
For the same PID:
PID: 11432
Process: codex
Measurement 1:
Working set: 12.73 GB
Private memory: 12.84 GB
CPU time: 186.25
Handles: 511
Measurement 2 shortly afterward:
Working set: 13.79 GB
Private memory: 13.80 GB
CPU time: 200.453125
Handles: 511
Private memory therefore increased by approximately 1 GB during the short interval between measurements and continued climbing.
PowerShell identified the process as:
Name : codex.exe
ProcessId : 11432
CommandLine : "...codex.exe" -c features.code_mode_host=true app-server --analytics-default-enabled
Isolation testing performed
I performed several A/B tests:
Ordinary Chat mode: normal. Responses are immediate and memory remains low.
Work mode with Remote disabled: normal after separate MCP testing.
Starting Remote: reliably triggers the runaway app-server memory growth.
Computer Use disabled during Remote setup: problem still occurs.
Chrome extension disabled during Remote setup: problem still occurs.
Laravel Boost MCP disabled: Remote problem still occurs.
No matching powershell.exe ... codex.ps1 app-server proxy processes were present during inspection.
This strongly suggests the Remote connection path itself is triggering unbounded memory growth in the Windows Codex app-server.
Expected result
After pairing, the mobile ChatGPT Remote interface should connect to the Windows desktop host and expose its supported chats/projects. Local codex.exe app-server memory usage should remain bounded and should not continually increase while the mobile client waits for the host.
Additional observations
The desktop side reports “You’re connected”, while the mobile side still shows the detected host and indefinitely displays “Looking for ChatGPT desktop…”.
Restarting the desktop app resets memory usage to normal. Re-attempting Remote reproduces the runaway behavior.
I can provide screenshots showing:
Windows desktop reporting successful pairing
Mobile Remote screen stuck looking for the desktop
Task Manager showing progressively increasing Codex RAM/CPU/disk use
PowerShell process command line
PowerShell working-set/private-memory measurements
Please let me know if additional logs, session IDs, or diagnostics would help.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
Feedback ID: no-active-thread-019fe38b-a0c7-7a33-b423-4adbad1c93fa
What is the expected behavior?
Feedback ID: no-active-thread-019fe38b-a0c7-7a33-b423-4adbad1c93fa
Additional information
_No response_