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Codex App repeatedly crashes on Windows with error code 3221225786 #33136
Description
What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?
26.707.71524
What subscription do you have?
ChatGPT Plus
What platform is your computer?
Windows 11, 64-bit (x64)
What issue are you seeing?
Codex repeatedly crashes on Windows in both the desktop app and the VS Code integration. The crash occurs a few seconds after submitting a command, including in newly created conversations.
The application repeatedly shows error code 3221225786, signal=null.
Recent error messages include:
- Model personality requested but model_messages is missing, falling back to base instructions.
- Failed to read canonical session metadata.
- Rollout JSONL is empty.
- State DB update_thread_metadata failed.
The issue persists after restarting, resetting, and reinstalling the application, creating new conversations, changing the personality setting, and lowering the reasoning effort. It occurs with different commands and is not limited to one project.
Codex is currently unusable because almost every submitted task causes the application to crash.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
- Open the Codex desktop app on Windows 11.
- Open any existing project or create a new conversation.
- Enter any command and submit it.
- Wait a few seconds.
- The application crashes and displays error code 3221225786.
The problem also occurs in the VS Code Codex integration. It persists after restarting, resetting, and reinstalling the app, creating new conversations, changing the personality setting, and lowering the reasoning effort.
What is the expected behavior?
Codex should process the submitted command normally without crashing. The conversation and session metadata should be saved correctly, and the application should remain usable.
Additional information
The crash has occurred repeatedly with different internal warning messages, including:
- Model personality requested but model_messages is missing
- failed to read canonical session metadata
- rollout JSONL is empty
- state DB update_thread_metadata failed
App version: 26.707.71524
Model: GPT-5.6 Sol
Windows 11, 64-bit
Subscription: ChatGPT Plus
The same problem occurs in both the Codex desktop app and the VS Code integration. Screenshots of the errors are attached.
Please let me know which diagnostic logs or session files I should provide for further investigation.
Activity
github-actions commentedon Jul 14, 2026
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
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csutorastomas commentedon Jul 15, 2026
The issue is still reproducible on July 15, 2026.
Codex worked for approximately one minute and then crashed again with error code 3221225786.
The crash dialog displayed:
Failed to create shell snapshot for powershell:
Shell snapshot not supported yet for PowerShell
Before the crash, Codex also reported that reading Windows process command lines was denied by permissions, but it successfully continued by checking PID/runtime files and ports instead.
I have not changed Windows security settings. Please note that the “most recent error” may be an incidental WARN rather than the actual crash cause, as reported in other Codex Windows issues.
csutorastomas commentedon Jul 16, 2026
Codex also detected a Windows/Python environment issue in the affected project:
“The Windows venv redirector has a corrupted stored Unicode path, and the sandbox also refuses the direct system Python.”
The project is located in a Windows user directory containing OneDrive and Unicode characters. Codex attempted to bypass the virtual environment and run the base Python interpreter outside the sandbox, but the application later crashed again with code 3221225786.
I am not attaching screenshots because they contain private project information.
larsjarju-tech commentedon Jul 17, 2026
Forensic data point: crash storm started exactly at the silent 0.144.2 → 0.144.5 auto-update boundary (same machine, same workload — 12 abrupt terminations in one day)
Environment: Windows 11 Home 10.0.26200, ChatGPT Desktop (MSIX) 1.2026.190.0, embedded codex-cli 0.144.5 (
%LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenAI\Codex\bin\494ae9d46ab9b3eb\codex.exe, installed 2026-07-16 13:00–13:05 local time, UTC+2). Same dialog as OP: exit code 3221225786 (0xC000013A = STATUS_CONTROL_C_EXIT).What the engine's own log DB shows (
%USERPROFILE%\.codex\logs_2.sqlite, tablelogs, grouped byprocess_uuid; all times local UTC+2, date 2026-07-16):commandExecutionoutput (codex_app_server::outgoing_message ... item/commandExecution/outputDelta, or hyper connection-pool lines) with zero shutdown lines. Three were instant re-deaths <6 s after relaunch, i.e. a crash loop (14:44, 14:53, 22:42).reports/is empty and Sentrysession.jsonshowserrors: 0— the Electron parent never records any crash. That is consistent with the child's console being closed / receiving a console CTRL event, not with an access violation.stream disconnected - retrying sampling requestthat the crash dialog happens to surface sat in a process that then survived another 4.5 minutes — it is unrelated to the terminations.Hypothesis (explicitly unproven): a 0.144.5 regression in command-execution / console child-process handling on Windows — all 12 deaths occurred during active command execution, and 0.144.2 on the identical setup and workload the night before showed none. Possibly related: #16271.
Happy to provide sanitized log excerpts around any of the timestamps above.
csutorastomas commentedon Jul 19, 2026
The issue is still reproducible after the latest update on July 19, 2026.
Codex stopped unexpectedly again while actively executing a PowerShell command. After clicking Restart, the application only reopened the existing thread. The interrupted command is marked as “Stopped” and was not resumed.
The task had completed 17 tests before the crash, but the remaining test run and the overall task were not completed.
Please confirm whether this Windows command-execution crash is being actively investigated and whether a patched build or supported rollback is available.
Current version: 26.709.11516
bmankowitz commentedon Aug 27, 2026
Still seeing
code=3221225786(0xC000013A) on Store26.820.7780.0with[features] unified_exec = falsealready pinned.The user-visible follow-on is the persisted unpaired custom-tool-call resume abort (
Custom tool call output is missing …), which then kills the shared app-server. Sanitized 2026-08-27 timeline is on #32653 and #40231. Not opening a duplicate.