[macOS][Voice] Start voice control disappears after a session ends in an existing task

What version of the Codex App are you using?

Not captured. This report concerns the macOS desktop app, not the CLI.

What platform is your computer?

macOS; exact OS and app build have not been verified.

What issue are you seeing?

In an existing desktop task, a realtime voice session ended and the user reported that voice had suddenly disappeared, with no visible control to re-enable or restart it. Text chat remained usable. The user reported the same missing restart option more than once in this task.

The user asked to stop background work because they could not find a way to resume voice. All research subagents are finished. It has not yet been verified whether the control returns after the final text response ends.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

User-reported sequence:

1. Use realtime voice in an existing desktop task.
2. Discuss work that is delegated to background agents.
3. End the voice session or encounter an unexpected session ending.
4. Return to the same task to resume voice.
5. The Start voice chat/reconnect control is not visible, while text messages still work.

This sequence has not been independently reproduced in a clean session. The precise event that ended the session is unknown.

What is the expected behavior?

Ending a voice session should restore a discoverable Start voice chat/reconnect control in the existing task. If voice cannot start because another session is active, backend work is running, or an allowance is exhausted, the app should show a clear reason and recovery action rather than leaving the restart control absent.

Additional information

Observed/report date: September 7, 2026.
The official Voice documentation describes reopening an earlier voice chat and selecting Start voice chat to resume it. That recovery path was not visible to the affected user.

Please investigate the transition from ended voice session back to the task composer and whether stale session or task-activity state can hide the restart control.

Possibly related, but a different symptom/platform: #42274 reports voice unavailable in an existing Windows task. Here the report concerns a missing restart control on macOS; a common cause is not established.

Prepared with AI assistance and submitted at the affected user's explicit request. No conversation transcript, private task content, screenshots, or logs are attached.

No source file or test is named in the report. Start by reproducing the ended-session flow in an existing macOS task and trace the transition back to the task composer, including stale session or task-activity state. Done means the Start voice chat/reconnect control is discoverable after a session ends, with a clear recovery reason when voice cannot restart.