[Desktop/Remote] Mobile shows “approval waiting” banner but no actionable approval card

What version of the Codex App are you using?

ChatGPT/Codex desktop app 26.803.61601, build 6396.

What subscription do you have?

Signed-in ChatGPT account. Exact subscription tier is not included in this public report.

What platform is your computer?

macOS 26.5.2 (25F84), Apple Silicon / arm64.

Mobile control was through ChatGPT Remote on iPhone/iPad. The exact mobile app build was not available from the desktop session.

What issue are you seeing?

A Codex task can reach a normal user-approval boundary while the user is away from the desktop. Mobile Remote displays a green approval waiting banner, but there is no actionable approval card, exact command, justification, Approve/Deny control, or usable cancellation control. The composer/send arrow may also be faded.

The desktop task remains internally stuck in waitingOnApproval for hours even though the user cannot action the request remotely. Recovery requires returning to the desktop, superseding the stuck request, and issuing an equivalent request elsewhere. That creates both delay and duplicate-action risk.

This is a consistent, repeatable failure and has occurred multiple times since the latest rollout.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Start or continue a long-running Codex Work task on the desktop app.
2. Leave the desktop and monitor/control the task with mobile Remote.
3. Let the task reach a permission boundary for a narrow command. In the latest incident the exact command was the read-only docker version.
4. Observe mobile Remote showing a green approval waiting banner.
5. Open the affected task on mobile.
6. Observe that no approval card, command detail, justification, Approve/Deny buttons, or usable cancellation control is available. The send arrow may be disabled.
7. Inspect the task from desktop or another task view and observe that it remains in waitingOnApproval.
8. Return to desktop, supersede the request, and issue a replacement approval request from another thread to unblock the workflow.

Latest observed incident: August 18, 2026, approximately 18:17–20:25 EDT.

Sanitized affected thread ID: 01a010e4-1c11-77a0-b720-e52da0f615b4.

What is the expected behavior?

• Approval requests should be visible and fully actionable on both desktop and mobile Remote.
• The UI should show the exact command/action, risk or justification, and Approve/Deny controls.
• Approval and cancellation state should synchronize immediately across devices.
• If a permission class is unsupported on mobile, that limitation should be disclosed before the user relies on Remote, and the task should provide a safe handoff instead of an unactionable banner.
• Stale or superseded approval banners should clear automatically.

What actually happens?

• Mobile shows an approval-waiting state without an approval control.
• The desktop and mobile task states diverge.
• The task stalls indefinitely.
• The user cannot safely approve, deny, or cancel remotely.
• Recovering later from desktop risks issuing a duplicate action.

Impact

The latest occurrence cost at least one full day over a weekend and may have cost a client/reference. The repeated failures materially undermine unattended and mobile-controlled Codex workflows. The mobile/Remote limitations were not clear when choosing the desktop workflow.

Related issue

• #25606 — mobile loses remote task/goal state, missed approvals, and stale progress.

This report is narrower: the approval attention banner is present, but the actionable approval card and controls are absent.