Linux desktop app shows inaccessible “zombie” chats absent from web client #43383

Description

The ChatGPT Linux desktop client shows several stale or “zombie” chats in the left sidebar. These chats cannot be opened, deleted, or archived. They do not appear when I access the same account through the ChatGPT web client.

Environment

• ChatGPT Linux client version: 26.901.51231
• Linux distribution/version: Linux Mint 22.3
• Account: Same account used successfully in the web client

Actual behaviour

Several chat titles remain visible in the Linux client’s sidebar. Examples include:

• Expliquer les niveaux API
• GitHub- done

Clicking these entries does not open the conversation. Attempting to delete or archive them has no effect. The entries are absent from the web client.

Expected behaviour

The Linux client sidebar should synchronise with the account’s current conversations. Entries that no longer exist should disappear, or at least remain removable through Delete or Archive.

Troubleshooting already performed

• Confirmed that the client is already the newest available version: 26.901.51231
• Signed out of the desktop client and signed back in
• Fully restarted the client
• Confirmed that the affected chats do not appear in the web client
• Checked the local Codex SQLite database with PRAGMA quick_check; result was ok
• Checked all thread records for missing transcript files; none were found
• Searched the local threads table for the example titles; no matching records were found

This suggests the entries may be retained in a separate desktop sidebar cache or synchronisation state rather than the normal local Codex thread database.

User feedback: recurring ghost chats survive profile reset and remain in the local catalog

• Source: [Linux desktop] Deleted ChatGPT conversations persist as undeletable ghost entries in sidebar; local catalog rows survive profile reset #47517
• Type: external
• User reports:
  • On Omarchy/Wayland, ghost ChatGPT conversation titles recur in the Linux desktop sidebar every few weeks; opening one says the conversation is no longer available, the entries are absent from chatgpt.com and other devices, and the UI cannot remove them.
  • Signing out, restarting, clearing Chromium caches, and moving ~/.config/Codex/Default aside did not remove the entries.
  • The affected rows remained in ~/.codex/sqlite/codex-dev.db under local_thread_catalog with source_kind='chatgpt'; after backing up the SQLite directory and deleting only five individually verified ghost-title rows while the app was closed, the sidebar entries disappeared on restart.
  • Older rows with missing_candidate=1 were not visible ghosts, while the verified ghost had missing_candidate=0, so the reporter says that flag did not reliably identify the stale sidebar entries.