[Windows] Voice chat consistently times out after Codex crash; clean reinstall only fixes it temporarily

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

26.825.51511

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

Windows 10 Pro Windows Version: 2009 OS Build: 26200 Architecture: 64-bit

What issue are you seeing?

Codex Desktop Voice on Windows consistently fails with:

"Voice chat couldn't start"
"Voice chat took too long to start"

The failure occurs BOTH when starting Voice normally and when starting Voice from inside an existing task that already contains messages.

Important diagnostic history:

• The same OpenAI account on a separate Windows laptop with a fresh Codex installation has working Voice.
• On this affected desktop, Codex was completely uninstalled and the existing .codex state was isolated.
• A completely fresh Codex installation initially restored Voice successfully.
• After subsequent normal use/restart, Voice failed again with the identical timeout.
• On September 1, Codex launched normally. When I clicked an existing project/task, the entire Codex application immediately terminated.
• I manually restarted Codex. Since that crash, Voice again consistently times out.
• Voice now fails without opening that project and also fails when started from an existing task.
• Windows DISM completed successfully.
• SFC /scannow reports no integrity violations.
• Windows Audio and Audio Endpoint Builder are running normally.
• Normal media playback and other voice applications work on this desktop.

I reproduced the Voice failure immediately before filing this issue and submitted Codex's built-in feedback with session/browser logs enabled.

Feedback ID:
01a057c5-0bcf-7572-b4e9-cac5d8e57f1c

Please correlate this Feedback ID with the failed Voice initialization.

A clean reinstall restoring Voice temporarily, followed by the failure returning after normal Codex use/crash, is the most significant behavior.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Launch Codex Desktop on the affected Windows PC.
2. Open an existing task or remain in the normal Codex interface.
3. Click the Voice button.
4. The Voice orb appears as though initialization has started.
5. Voice never becomes active.
6. After approximately 30-60 seconds, Codex displays:

"Voice chat couldn't start"
"Voice chat took too long to start"

7. Click Back.
8. Open an existing task containing messages and start Voice from that task.
9. The same timeout occurs.

Additional reproduction history:

A completely clean Codex reinstall with fresh local .codex state initially restored Voice. After subsequent use/restart and an application crash while opening an existing project/task, the Voice timeout returned and persists across Codex restarts.

The same OpenAI account on another Windows laptop has working Codex Voice.

What is the expected behavior?

Voice should initialize normally and establish the Voice session within a few seconds.

Opening or working within an existing Codex project/task should not cause the application to terminate, and an application crash should not leave Voice in a persistent timeout state afterward.

Restarting Codex should restore a usable Voice session without requiring deletion of local state or a complete reinstall.

Additional information

Built-in Codex feedback was submitted immediately after reproducing the failure with current session logs and browser logs enabled.

Feedback ID:
01a057c5-0bcf-7572-b4e9-cac5d8e57f1c

The first feedback upload attempt failed, but Retry succeeded using the same Feedback ID.

Related reports appear to include Windows Codex Voice startup/thread/realtime initialization failures. This case differs in that Voice fails both globally AND from inside an already-existing task.

Please inspect the Feedback ID telemetry for the point at which Voice initialization stops, including:

• Voice startup watchdog
• thread/session materialization
• realtime session creation
• WebRTC/realtime initialization
• renderer/runtime exceptions
• plugin/browser initialization
• persistent application state following the Codex crash

No project source code needs to be executed to reproduce the current Voice failure.

Start by correlating feedback ID 01a057c5-0bcf-7572-b4e9-cac5d8e57f1c with the Voice initialization failure and reproducing the timeout after opening an existing task. Trace the reported crash and subsequent Voice failures through the startup, realtime, WebRTC, renderer, and persistent-state logs; done means Voice starts reliably after normal restart without deleting local state or reinstalling.