[iOS Remote] Existing completed conversations fail to load/reconnect; only newly created conversations open (1.2026.230 / desktop 26.901.51231)

Summary

On ChatGPT iOS Remote, existing completed Codex conversations are visible in the task list, but opening them fails to load messages and reconnect. The user reports that only newly created conversations can be opened. Two specific completed conversations were verified as readable on the Mac host through the desktop thread-reading interface, with completed turns and no turn errors.

Versions

• Mac desktop app: 26.901.51231, build 8109 (installed ChatGPT.app bundle metadata).
• iOS Remote client: 1.2026.230 (recorded as codex_chatgpt_ios_remote in host request logs).
• Host macOS: 26.5.2.
• Observed: September 7, 2026, approximately 22:32–22:41 Asia/Shanghai (14:32–14:41 UTC).
• Subscription and iOS OS version: not collected.

Reproduction observed

1. Complete a Codex conversation on the connected Mac host.
2. Open Remote in ChatGPT on iOS and select the existing completed conversation.
3. The conversation title and host row render, but the message area displays an error.
4. Retry opening it: the failure persists. Reproduced for two completed conversations.
5. The user reports that newly created conversations open successfully. This comparison is user-reported; the precise lifecycle transition that makes a conversation fail has not been isolated.

The supplied screenshot shows both Chinese messages:

• 加载消息时出错。 (Error loading messages.)
• 此任务无法重新连接 (This task cannot be reconnected.)

Both have Retry controls. The screenshot is omitted from this public report because it includes private task and host names.

Expected

Existing completed conversations should load their messages and remain available for continuation through iOS Remote, as newly created conversations do.

Host-side evidence

For one affected conversation, host logs at 14:41:18–14:41:19 UTC show this sequence from the iOS connection:

thread/resume
composing running thread resume response: active_turn_present=false, active_turn_id=None, active_turn_status=None
thread/turns/list
thread/items/list

The iOS request reached the host and progressed to history-item requests. These traces do not establish successful response delivery or successful mobile decoding.

The resume path also logs:

thread/resume overrides ignored for loaded thread: config overrides were provided and ignored while running

This warning is reported as context only, not as a proven cause. The adjacent lifecycle trace explicitly reports no active turn.

A separate desktop-side read of each affected conversation succeeds:

Local rollout sizes (bytes; largest record excludes the newline):

No specific host-side fatal error has been identified that proves the reason for the mobile failure. The current evidence narrows investigation to reconnect/history hydration or its response handling, without establishing a root cause.

Related reports

• #38889: iOS cannot load paginated CLI thread messages. This report does not establish a CLI-origin or history-mode correlation.
• #42129: selective iOS history failure associated with large individual records. Our two observed largest records are below 0.5 MB; their serialized mobile response sizes have not been measured, so the same size-related cause is not established.

Private conversation IDs, request IDs, business content, host names, and full transcripts are omitted. No raw logs or private session uploads are included.

Start by tracing the completed-conversation flow from thread/resume through thread/turns/list and thread/items/list, comparing it with newly created conversations. Investigate whether history responses are delivered and decoded successfully on iOS, using the desktop-side readable conversations as a comparison. Done means existing completed conversations load messages and reconnect through iOS Remote, with regression coverage for this lifecycle.