[Chat][All platforms] "Archive all chats" leaves stale Recents entries that cannot be archived or deleted #41725

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1. TheLevic

   added

   appIssues related to the Codex desktop appIssues related to the Codex desktop app

   on Aug 30, 2026
2. github-actions

   added

   bugSomething isn't workingSomething isn't working

   sessionIssues involving session (thread) management, resuming, forking, naming, archivingIssues involving session (thread) management, resuming, forking, naming, archiving

   on Aug 30, 2026
3. github-actions commented on Aug 30, 2026

   

   github-actionsBot

   on Aug 30, 2026 – with GitHub Actions

   Contributor

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   Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

   • Deleted conversations remain as stale titles in Windows app Recents #41602
   • [Windows][Desktop 26.825.6671.0] Deleted conversations persist in Recents after reset, re-login, and canonical-list removal #41693
   • [macOS][Desktop] Deleted ChatGPT conversations remain in sidebar after full local profile reset #41399
   • Can't delete conversation in desktop app #40981
   • Ghost records #40543

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4. TheLevic

   changed the title [-][Chat][All platforms] Archive All leaves stale Recents entries that cannot be archived or deleted[/-] [+][Chat][All platforms] "Archive all chats" leaves stale Recents entries that cannot be archived or deleted[/+] on Aug 30, 2026
5. ady220104-spec commented on Sep 1, 2026

   

   ady220104-spec

   on Sep 1, 2026 – with ChatGPT Codex Connector

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   Windows + ChatGPT Work reproduction on a newer unified desktop build.

   Environment

   • Windows NT 10.0.26200 x64
   • Microsoft Store package: OpenAI.Codex_26.825.6671.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
   • App version: 26.825.6671.0
   • Surface: unified ChatGPT desktop app, switching from Chat to Work

   Observed behavior

   • The Work sidebar can display many stale or duplicated branch-style rows.
   • Some affected rows initially render an empty/disabled conversation surface.
   • Archive or Delete reports an error, while the row remains visible.
   • One captured example showed three identical branch-style rows for the same redacted title. This is not limited to one title; the user reports many affected title families.
   • Settings > Data Controls > Archived chats does not provide a reliable cleanup path for these stale sidebar rows.

   Read-only reconciliation audit

   • Fully paginating the Work sidebar produced 181 unique conversation links / 181 unique IDs.
   • 177/181 were successfully read back as real ChatGPT conversations.
   • The remaining 4 reads returned HTTP 429 / “Too many requests”; they are therefore not verified as missing or deleted.
   • Settings > Data Controls listed 30 distinct archived conversations.
   • The three duplicated branch-style rows from the captured UI were absent from both canonical inventories and disappeared only after forcing a full Data Controls/sidebar reload.
   • The underlying parent conversation remained readable.
   • Two other branch-prefixed conversations and two same-title conversations were sampled; all were distinct, valid, and readable. Therefore, title similarity alone cannot safely identify stale rows.

   This points to a Recents / branch-index reconciliation defect, not ordinary duplicate user chats. The client can temporarily render stale projected rows that do not correspond cleanly to the current canonical conversation/archived inventories. A forced refresh may hide them temporarily, but users have no durable, supported cleanup action and cannot safely distinguish stale rows from real conversations.

   Expected behavior

   1. One canonical sidebar row per conversation or branch ID.
   2. Recents should reconcile automatically against current conversation and archive state.
   3. If Open/Archive/Delete encounters a terminal missing, deleted, or invalid branch record, the client should remove the stale Recents projection (or treat cleanup as idempotent success) instead of leaving an undeletable row.
   4. Archive/Delete errors should expose an actionable status rather than a generic failure.
   5. Provide an explicit Refresh/Rebuild sidebar index action that does not delete real conversations.

   Privacy
   No conversation IDs, titles, contents, account identifiers, email addresses, local paths, screenshots, or raw logs are included in this public comment. Exact evidence can be provided privately to OpenAI if requested.

   This Windows Work-mode evidence appears to be the same symptom family as #41602 and #41399, while adding branch-row duplication and canonical-inventory comparison on build 26.825.6671.0.
6. derrabe commented on Sep 4, 2026

   

   derrabe

   on Sep 4, 2026

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   Same here on macOS.

   Archive all chats on the web cleared Recents on chatgpt.com, ChatGPT Classic for Mac, and iOS. Those conversations show up under Settings → Data controls → Archived chats and still open from there.

   The unified Mac app (Chat / Work) still shows the full Recents list. The rows open normally — not 404s. Resetting the unified app UI cache (Application Support / Caches / HTTPStorages / Logs / Preferences for com.openai.codex) did not help; the same Recents list came back after sign-in. ~/.codex was left in place.
7. TesiLin commented on Sep 9, 2026

   

   TesiLin

   on Sep 9, 2026

   More actions

   Same here on windows with app version 26.903.61454
8. Nz2Tap commented on Sep 11, 2026

   

   Nz2Tap

   on Sep 11, 2026

   More actions

   Additional reproducible macOS ↔ Windows evidence from 2026-09-11.

   Environment:

   • Unified ChatGPT desktop app on macOS: 26.903.71938 (build 8576)
   • macOS 27.0 (26A428), Apple Silicon
   • The same account is also used on a Windows desktop client
   • Bundled Codex CLI: 0.153.4

   Reproduction:

   1. Delete several ChatGPT conversations on desktop A.
   2. Open or refresh the unified desktop app on desktop B.
   3. The deleted conversations remain in Recents on B.
   4. Opening them fails; Archive and Delete also fail.
   5. Sign out and back in on B. The stale rows remain.

   This has recurred multiple times, including 2026-09-06 and 2026-09-11, with different deleted conversations.

   Sanitized local evidence from the latest incident:

   • Six stale conversation rows remained in the desktop local_thread_catalog.
   • Every one of the six failed canonical readback.
   • App logs recorded terminal server responses such as HTTP 404 with conversation_deleted / conversation_inaccessible.
   • Retrying Delete on a stale row also returned HTTP 404 conversation_deleted.
   • The desktop client kept the rows instead of treating the terminal response as successful local reconciliation.
   • Manually backing up the catalog, deleting only those six stale rows, and incrementing the catalog revision immediately restored the correct Recents list. Three valid conversations remained untouched and readable.

   This suggests the client receives a terminal tombstone signal but does not remove the corresponding local Recents projection. Delete and Archive then keep retrying against a conversation that no longer exists.

   Expected behavior:

   • A server-side conversation_deleted response should remove the matching local catalog/Recents row.
   • Delete should be idempotent: deleting an already deleted conversation should count as local cleanup success.
   • Full reconciliation should remove local rows absent from the canonical active and archived inventories.
   • The same reconciliation should run across desktop clients after a conversation is deleted on another device.

   No conversation titles, contents, full IDs, account identifiers, email addresses, local paths, screenshots, or raw logs are included here. Exact evidence can be provided privately to OpenAI if requested.
9. Ray8mu34 commented on Oct 19, 2026

   

   Ray8mu34

   on Oct 19, 2026 – with ChatGPT Codex Connector

   More actions

   The archived-chat/Recents behavior described here and in #48688 is still occurring in the ChatGPT Windows desktop app. Although #48688 was closed as fixed, the archive-related symptom persists on Windows:

   • Chats already archived on ChatGPT Web also appear correctly in the desktop app's Archived chats list.
   • Those same chats still appear in the desktop sidebar's Recents list.
   • Selecting Archive again in the desktop app displays a success notification, even though the chats were already archived.

   Expected: archived chats should be excluded from Recents, consistent with their archived status.

   This report concerns the archived-chat behavior only; it does not confirm whether the separate Linux loading/high-CPU issue in #48688 is resolved.
10. linear

    added

    Linux

    on Oct 19, 2026