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Codex Desktop project sidebar omits older unarchived threads #20608
Description
What issue are you seeing?
Codex Desktop stopped showing some older project threads in the project sidebar after restart, even though the underlying local records still existed and were not archived.
Restarting the app and refreshing local metadata did not restore the missing threads. This appears to be a sidebar listing, indexing, or pagination issue rather than data loss.
Steps to reproduce
- Use Codex Desktop with multiple threads under a project.
- Restart the app after the project has accumulated older threads.
- Observe that only recent threads appear under the project.
- Verify that the missing threads still exist locally and are not archived.
Expected behavior
Unarchived project threads should remain visible and searchable after restart. If the sidebar index becomes stale, Codex should reconcile it automatically or provide a supported reindex or repair path.
Additional information
This appears related to #20419 and #17540, although the observed case did not recover after restart or a metadata refresh.
Activity
github-actions commentedon May 1, 2026
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
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chuanyuj commentedon May 1, 2026
I reviewed the suggested potential duplicates. #20419 appears to be the closest match, while #20254 and #20493 differ in platform or recovery path.
This report may belong to the same broader sidebar and indexing issue family, but the observed case did not recover after restart or a metadata refresh. Maintainers may consolidate it into a canonical issue if appropriate.
mu-liang-ai commentedon May 10, 2026
I can reproduce what appears to be the same Desktop sidebar recent-window bug.
Observed:
~/.codex/state_5.sqliteand their rollout JSONL files still exist under~/.codex/sessions.updated_atamong active local threads, so it falls outside the apparent global recent window.This looks like the Desktop sidebar is grouping only a globally preloaded recent subset, rather than querying/paginating per project/cwd when a project is expanded.
Expected:
When expanding a project, Codex Desktop should fetch that project’s full local thread history by
cwd, or continue paginating until matching project threads are loaded. A user-configurable recent thread preload limit would also help as a mitigation.[-]Codex Desktop macOS project sidebar hides unarchived local threads even though SQLite/session files are intact[/-][+]Codex Desktop project sidebar omits older unarchived threads[/+]