[macOS Desktop 26.803.41515] Nearly every prompt/goal enters Reconnecting 5/5 and ends with "request timed out"

Start at the macOS desktop Codex surface by reproducing the reconnect sequence with both an ordinary prompt and a goal start or resume. Trace the Working, Reconnecting 5/5, and request timed out states, then verify that transient interruptions recover and that the UI reconciles with the authoritative task state instead of showing a terminal timeout.

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

ChatGPT/Codex Desktop 26.803.41515 (released Aug 7, 2026)

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

• macOS Tahoe 26.5.2
• Apple Silicon / arm64
• MacBook Pro 16-inch
• Apple M5 Max
• 128 GB unified memory

What issue are you seeing?

On the current macOS desktop build, almost every time I send a prompt or start/resume a goal, the request spends several minutes in Working, then enters:

Reconnecting 5/5

and eventually ends with:

request timed out

Representative observed sequence:

Working for 5m 22s
Reconnecting 5/5

and in another occurrence:

Working for 7m 32s
Reconnecting 5/5
request timed out

This is recurrent rather than a one-off failure. In some cases, the task only begins or resumes after the timeout sequence, which makes the error state misleading: the UI appears to report a terminal failure even though work may subsequently continue.

The problem is visible in the ChatGPT macOS desktop application’s Codex surface and affects both ordinary prompts and goal/task starts.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Open ChatGPT/Codex Desktop on macOS.
2. Open an existing project conversation or goal.
3. Send a prompt, or start/resume a goal.
4. Wait while the UI remains on Working for several minutes.
5. Observe Reconnecting 5/5.
6. Observe request timed out after the reconnect attempts are exhausted.
7. Retry with another prompt/task; the same sequence occurs frequently.

What is the expected behavior?

• Prompts and goals should begin normally without a multi-minute reconnect loop.
• A transient transport interruption should recover without exhausting all five retries.
• If the underlying task is still alive and later continues, the desktop UI should not present a terminal-looking timeout; it should reconcile and display the authoritative task state.
• If the request truly failed, the app should provide a clear retry/resume action without requiring the user to guess whether work is still running.

Additional information

In-app feedback was submitted with the current ChatGPT session logs and browser tabs/browser logs included.

Feedback ID:

019fda84-a41b-7980-8108-bbb8616dfade