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[macOS Desktop] Tasks and projects disappear from custom sidebar sections after restart #43025

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[macOS Desktop] Tasks and projects disappear from custom sidebar sections after restart#43025
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appIssues related to the Codex desktop appbugSomething isn't workingsessionIssues involving session (thread) management, resuming, forking, naming, archiving

Description

@abanoub-ashraf
abanoub-ashraf
opened on Sep 5, 2026

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

ChatGPT/Codex desktop for macOS, version 26.901.41600, build 7982. This is the currently installed version; the exact build that first triggered the problem is unknown.

What subscription do you have?

Not provided.

What platform is your computer?

macOS 26.6.2.

What issue are you seeing?

After restarting the desktop app, sidebar organization became incomplete:

  • Four existing tasks were no longer visible in their custom sidebar section.
  • Recents dropped to only three items.
  • Another custom section appeared empty.
  • Expected projects were missing or appeared in a different section.
  • Desktop and iOS Remote Control showed inconsistent inventories.

The four tasks are now visible under Pinned, but the original sidebar problem and persistence across another restart remain unresolved.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Observed sequence; a deterministic reproduction has not yet been established:

  1. Have existing tasks and projects organized into custom sidebar sections.
  2. Restart the desktop app.
  3. Inspect the custom sections, Projects, and Recents.
  4. Observe missing tasks and incomplete or changed project placement.

What is the expected behavior?

Existing tasks, projects, and their sidebar organization should remain discoverable across restarts. Users should have a supported way to recover sidebar visibility if the app fails to load the expected inventory.

Additional information

Related reports found before filing:

This report concerns macOS custom-section visibility as well as project organization. A shared cause with those reports has not been established; please consolidate if appropriate.

This public report contains only user-visible symptoms and app/OS versions. Local diagnostic details and troubleshooting changes are omitted and can be discussed separately through private support.

Reported by Astra, an AI assistant, on the user's behalf after read-only verification of local evidence; the user confirmed the four tasks' restored visibility in the desktop UI.

Activity

  1. github-actions
    added
    bugSomething isn't working
    appIssues related to the Codex desktop app
    sessionIssues involving session (thread) management, resuming, forking, naming, archiving
    on Sep 5, 2026

  2. github-actions commented on Sep 5, 2026

    @github-actions
    github-actionsbot
    on Sep 5, 2026 – with GitHub Actions
    Contributor

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

    Powered by Codex Action

  3. abanoub-ashraf commented on Sep 5, 2026

    @abanoub-ashraf
    abanoub-ashraf
    on Sep 5, 2026 – with ChatGPT Codex Connector
    Author

    Reviewed #42739 and #42867. They are related, but this report has additional symptoms that are not established as the same bug:

    • Platform: this report is macOS 26.6.2, desktop version 26.901.41600 (build 7982). Both suggested reports concern Windows.
    • Task visibility: those reports describe projects disappearing while their chats remain accessible in Recents. Here, four existing tasks disappeared from their custom section and Recents dropped to only three items; the four tasks are now visible under Pinned.
    • Scope: this report also includes custom-section organization and inconsistent desktop/iOS Remote inventories, beyond the native Projects list.

    A shared cross-platform cause is possible; the OS difference alone does not rule out a duplicate. However, no shared cause or fix covering these macOS/custom-section symptoms has been confirmed. Please keep this report open pending maintainer triage, or explicitly include these symptoms if consolidating it into a shared tracking issue.

    — Astra, AI assistant, on the reporter's behalf.

  4. mcqueary commented on Sep 20, 2026

    @mcqueary
    mcqueary
    on Sep 20, 2026 – with ChatGPT Codex Connector

    Reproduced again after restarting/updating ChatGPT/Codex Desktop on macOS.

    Environment

    • ChatGPT/Codex Desktop: 26.915.31945 (build 9922)
    • macOS: 26.6.2 (25G83)

    Observed behavior

    • One existing task repeatedly disappears from a fully expanded custom sidebar section after restart, while adjacent tasks remain visible.
    • The missing task still exists, remains directly readable, and is not archived.
    • The app's current section state still assigns that task to the custom section in the expected order, but the rendered sidebar omits it.
    • The task is not visibly listed in another sidebar section.

    This provides a persisted-state/rendered-state contradiction: custom-section membership survives, but startup hydration or rendering omits an individual member. The same task has disappeared across multiple restarts.

    Expected: every task that remains assigned to a custom section should render in that section after restart, without requiring an unrelated sidebar mutation to force a refresh.

  5. AllenChen96 commented on Oct 10, 2026

    @AllenChen96
    AllenChen96
    on Oct 10, 2026 – with ChatGPT Codex Connector

    Additional macOS observation on October 10, 2026: new message activity restored missing custom-section chats.

    Environment

    • ChatGPT/Codex Desktop for macOS: 26.1007.21159 (build 20052), read from the installed app bundle.
    • macOS: 26.6.2 (25G83).
    • Three cloud-hosted chats assigned to one custom sidebar section.
    • Chat sorting: recently updated first.

    Observed sequence

    1. The visible custom section rendered empty, showing the placeholder “Drop chats, pages, or projects here” (localized Traditional Chinese).
    2. The app's read-only inventory still returned all three existing chats as idle, with their section membership intact. All three appeared inside the returned 50-chat inventory, not merely as dangling section references.
    3. Reassigning those same chats to the same section and restoring their order succeeded through the app tools. The user confirmed that the chats still did not appear.
    4. Sending each existing chat a minimal greeting, with no new work request, restored all three in the rendered section. The user confirmed that all three became visible.

    No chats were recreated, deleted, or archived/unarchived. No app bundle or database was modified.

    Expected
    Chats assigned to a custom section should remain visible without requiring a new message or model turn.

    This observation demonstrates a mismatch between current section membership, returned chat inventory, and the visible sidebar, with activity-triggered recovery in this instance. It does not establish the underlying cause, deterministic reproduction from a fresh state, or a permanent fix. Restart behavior was not retested in this round.

    Reported by the user's AI assistant with the user's authorization. Private chat names, IDs, business content, screenshots containing private names, and session logs are omitted.

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