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Mac desktop app cannot start chats inside Projects or move chats to Projects #35473
Description
What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?
ChatGPT 26.721.41059 on macOS
What subscription do you have?
Business Workspace
What platform is your computer?
Darwin 25.5.0 arm64 arm
What issue are you seeing?
In the ChatGPT Mac desktop app, Projects appear in the sidebar and their existing chats are visible, but I cannot open the project landing page, start a new chat inside a project, or move an existing chat into a project.
Clicking a project only expands the list of chats beneath it. The chat menu does not include “Move to project.” These features work correctly on chatgpt.com using the same account and Rumford Stone Business workspace.
I have already quit and reopened the app, signed out and back in, confirmed the same email and workspace, and verified that the app is up to date. The issue remains.
App version: 26.721.41059
Platform: Darwin 25.5.0 arm64 arm
Feedback ID: no-active-thread-019f9e61-29cf-7392-8abe-c5131ea2c86c
What steps can reproduce the bug?
Feedback ID: no-active-thread-019f9e6e-9cb1-7c50-8285-9959fbdde14f
What is the expected behavior?
Clicking a project should open its project page and allow me to start a new Chat or Work conversation. Existing eligible chats should also have a “Move to project” option.
Additional information
- Open the ChatGPT Mac desktop app.
- Sign in to the Rumford Stone Business workspace.
- Click a project in the left sidebar.
- The project only expands to show existing chats.
- There is no option to start a new chat within the project.
- Open the … menu on an existing chat.
- “Move to project” is not available.
- Open chatgpt.com using the same account and workspace; both features work correctly there.
Activity
github-actions commentedon Jul 26, 2026
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
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VincentTrento commentedon Jul 26, 2026
Update: Starting a new chat inside a project is now available through the pencil icon beside the project. This may have appeared after signing out and back in, or after reinstalling the app.
The remaining issue is that “Move to project” is still unavailable in the Mac desktop app, although it works on chatgpt.com using the same account and workspace.
garyross commentedon Aug 17, 2026
The behavior of the New Chat (paper + pencil) icon inside a Project is inconsistent.
In some Projects, hovering over the icon displays a tooltip, and clicking it creates a normal chat outside the Project. In other Projects, no tooltip appears, and clicking the same icon creates a chat inside the Project.
In other words, the same control has two different behaviors depending on the type of Project, without giving the user any indication that the Projects are different.
My suspicion is that this is related to the distinction between Work Projects and Chat Projects:
Inside Chat Context:
The interface does not make this distinction clear. From the user's perspective, both are presented simply as "Projects", and the New Chat icon is identical in both cases. The result is that the same action has different outcomes with no visible explanation.
Interestingly, the appearance of a tooltip only in Work Projects suggests that the application already knows which type of Project it is displaying. If these two Project types are intended to behave differently, the UI should communicate that explicitly—for example by using different icons, labels, or tooltips, or by disabling the control when "New Chat in Project" is not supported.
As it stands, users naturally expect the New Chat button inside a Project to create a new chat inside that Project, regardless of the underlying Project type. The current behavior is confusing because it silently violates that expectation.
The screenshot shows how hovering over the 'New Chat' icon appears when inside Chat produces a popup. Clicking the 'icon' in such a case ignores the Project context and is simply the same as clicking a New Chat icon at the top of the page. Clicking it should perhaps give a warning. "This is a Work Project. Switch to Work?" -> [Yes|Cancel]
This may be connected to Project type. When I click Create Project I'm giving the choice: "Cloud" vs "Local". Is this distinction the same as "Chat" vs. "Work"? If so the distinction is confusing as different terminology is being conflated in different contexts.