[ChatGPT Web] Completed assistant answers disappear after next message; Thinking summary remains #53540

Summary

Product affected: ChatGPT Web (ordinary conversations at chatgpt.com, not the Codex CLI, IDE extension, or Codex task view).

Previously completed and visible assistant answers intermittently disappear after the user sends the next message in the same conversation, while the earlier assistant turn's Thinking / reasoning-progress summary and elapsed-time label remain visible. This has recurred over recent days.

The user asked for a public report because ChatGPT's built-in bug-report flow did not allow them to upload the screenshot evidence. Please route this to the ChatGPT Web owner if this repository is not the right tracker.

User-observed sequence

1. Open an existing ordinary ChatGPT Web conversation.
2. Send a prompt and let the assistant complete its answer; the user reads the completed final answer.
3. Send a follow-up prompt in the same conversation.
4. The earlier completed assistant answer body is now absent, even though its Thinking section, timing, and activity summary remain in the transcript.
5. The subsequent user message and other chat UI elements remain visible.

This is intermittent, not a claim of deterministic reproduction on every follow-up. The user reports repeated incidents. The screenshot shows visible thinking-duration/activity sections next to intact user turns, without corresponding answer bodies. Whether the removed answer is still on the server is not established; this could be a UI hydration/rendering or persistence/synchronization fault.

Expected behavior

• Completed assistant answers should remain present and readable when the conversation advances to the next turn.
• A message-loading failure should be made explicit, with a recovery mechanism rather than silently presenting only a finished Thinking/activity section.

Actual behavior and impact

• Earlier answers vanish from the visible conversation after a new user turn.
• Research/literature-analysis outputs can become inaccessible, breaking continuity in long-running conversations.
• The user cannot tell whether the content was deleted, failed to synchronize, or failed to render.

Environment and evidence

• Surface: ChatGPT Web, Simplified Chinese user interface.
• OS: Windows desktop.
• Browser: Microsoft Edge 148 (Chromium-based).
• Observed date: October 13, 2026, UTC+08:00; recurring in preceding days.
• Visual evidence: An original screenshot was supplied by the affected user. Not uploaded publicly because it contains private chat content. It can be supplied through an appropriate private support channel.
• Not tested / unknown: Whether refresh/reopening recovers the response, whether the data export contains it, and whether the issue is in server storage or client rendering.
• Secondary feedback problem: The in-product Report a bug path reportedly did not allow screenshot attachment.

Related reports (symptom overlap only; same root cause not established)

• chat responses disappear #52750 — assistant responses disappear from regular ChatGPT conversations (similar overarching symptom).
• [Windows Chat 26.1002.52244] Completed answer bodies disappear on chat revisit; duration and actions remain #52493 — completed answer bodies vanish with duration/actions retained on Windows Chat after revisiting a chat (desktop trigger differs).
• [Windows][ChatGPT desktop] Assistant answer body is missing while thinking and web-search activity remain visible #52618 — answer body missing while Thinking/web activity remains visible (Windows desktop).
• [ChatGPT Web] Two assistant responses show "This response couldn't load" even after hard refresh #53164 — ChatGPT Web completed messages show a loading failure (different visible error state).

Request

1. Investigate completed-response hydration/rendering and conversation-turn transitions in ChatGPT Web.
2. Verify whether affected final answers remain stored server-side, and provide a non-destructive way to recover them.
3. Clarify where users can submit private screenshots when the in-product feedback widget does not support attachments.
4. Route this report to the responsible ChatGPT Web team if this Codex repository is not the correct product tracker.

No account email, conversation ID, private conversation URL, research text, or screenshot is included in this public report.