[macOS][App] Quit/relaunch scrambles project task groups; Recents retains gray, unresponsive deleted tasks #43607

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

ChatGPT desktop / Codex app 26.901.51231, build 8109, verified on an affected Mac. Desktop-bundled Codex and PATH Codex both report 0.153.4.

What subscription do you have?

Not included in this report.

What platform is your computer?

macOS, Apple Silicon. One affected host runs macOS 26.6.2 (25G83). The setup includes three Macs with saved SSH projects, including connections back to the same physical host, plus two Linux SSH hosts.

What issue are you seeing?

The desktop sidebar does not reliably preserve organization by project across app quits/relaunches and updates. I repeatedly organize and use tasks under their projects, but after restarting the app many tasks appear under Recents instead, leaving their project groups empty or incomplete. I cannot find a working UI action to put those affected tasks back under the correct project.

Recents also contains a large number of previously deleted tasks that remain as gray, inactive entries. I estimate roughly 100 entries; this is a visual estimate, not a measured count. Clicking these gray entries does nothing, but they continue to occupy sidebar space.

These symptoms make the sidebar difficult to use: the app loses useful project organization and fills Recents with entries that cannot be opened. This is not just a cosmetic ordering preference.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Observed repeatedly in my existing installation:

1. Use the desktop app with multiple saved projects and existing tasks grouped by project. Some tasks have previously been deleted.
2. Fully quit and reopen the desktop app, or reopen it after an app update.
3. Inspect the project groups and Recents.
4. Observe that many existing tasks have moved out of their project groups into Recents. Projects may now appear empty even though their tasks still exist.
5. Try to restore an affected task to its correct project; I cannot find a working route in the UI.
6. Observe numerous gray entries for previously deleted tasks under Recents. Clicking them has no effect.

I report this as recurring after ordinary quits/restarts as well as updates. It has not been reproduced in a fresh profile, and I am not claiming that every task is affected on every restart.

What is the expected behavior?

• Preserve task-to-project membership and sidebar organization across normal restarts and app updates.
• Reconcile the sidebar with deleted task state so deleted tasks do not remain as inert entries.
• Provide a supported way to restore an existing task to its correct project if its association is lost, including saved SSH projects.
• Recover through normal application behavior without editing internal state files, recreating teams, or deleting valid task history.

Additional information

Read-only diagnostics on one affected Mac confirmed that its saved SSH project still exists while its tasks appear under Recents. This confirms the project connection itself was not simply removed. The cause of the lost grouping and the backing type of every gray entry have not been established. No sidebar database/cache reset or manual project-mapping repair was performed during this investigation.

Related reports:

• Codex Desktop update lost project/sidebar conversation history mapping although local sessions still exist #26157: project/history mapping lost after an update, on an older app version.
• MacOS desktop app keeps undeletable "ghost" conversations in the sidebar after deletion #41987 and Deleted ChatGPT chats remain in Codex sidebar and cannot be removed #42236: deleted conversations remaining as ghost sidebar entries.

This report emphasizes recurrence during ordinary quit/relaunch on the current affected build, combined with lost project grouping and gray, unresponsive deleted-task entries. The grouping and ghost-entry symptoms may have separate causes.

A separately reported local-versus-SSH writer conflict is discussed in #37403. We have not established that it causes the sidebar grouping problem, so this report does not assume that causal link.

Project names, task contents, account details, machine addresses, and private logs are omitted.