Android Remote hides newer project chats unless pinned; unpinning makes them disappear

Summary

ChatGPT Android Remote omits two newer chats from an existing Windows-hosted project's chat list even though all chats remain visible on the host and readable through the host's thread tools. Pinning provides a partial workaround: after a remote message refreshed the list, the missing chats appeared as pinned; unpinning them on the phone immediately made them disappear again.

Environment

• ChatGPT Android: 1.2026.237 (user-reported).
• Host: Windows, ChatGPT/Codex desktop, local project.
• A September 7 host log references desktop package OpenAI.Codex_26.901.6511.0_x64; the current About-dialog version has not been independently confirmed.
• Observed September 7, 2026, America/Halifax (UTC-03:00).
• Remote access to an older chat on the same host/project continues working.

Observed reproduction sequence

1. An existing project has three older chats visible both on Windows and Android Remote.
2. Create a new top-level chat through the desktop thread-creation tool, then later create a same-directory fork through the fork tool. Both belong to the same project. This shared creation path is an observation, not an established cause.
3. The two newer chats are visible on Windows but missing from the phone's project list. The user reports that the fork was previously visible remotely before disappearing.
4. Force-stop/reopen ChatGPT on Android and reboot both Windows and the phone. The discrepancy persists.
5. Pin both existing chats through the host tool. Host listing confirms both pins; the phone initially still does not show them.
6. Send a short test message remotely. The user then sees the two chats as pinned. This is a temporal association, not proof that message submission itself is the trigger.
7. Unpin the chats from the phone. Both disappear again instead of appearing in the project's ordinary chat list.
8. Re-pin the same chats on the host as the current workaround.

No chats were recreated or deleted to recover their histories.

Expected behavior

All non-archived chats associated with the selected remote host/project should appear in its project list. Unpinning should return a chat to the ordinary list rather than make it undiscoverable. Project and pin changes should refresh without requiring a new message.

Host-side evidence

• list_threads returns the affected chats and the older visible chats.
• Both affected chats have the exact same projectId, hostId and cwd string (including casing) as the visible chats.
• list_projects resolves that shared ID to a single project. There is no project-name field independently exposed per chat; a resolved name should not be confused with embedded metadata.
• read_thread can retrieve the completed histories of both affected chats.
• Pin mutations succeed, and a subsequent host listing includes both chats in pinnedThreads.
• The host clock agrees with current UTC; a gross host clock/timezone error was not observed.

Timestamp discrepancy (possibly related, not a confirmed cause)

All values below are September 7, 2026 in Halifax time unless otherwise stated:

Chat B's reported updatedAt remains equal to its creation time despite later completed work. Chat A's update timestamp agrees with its latest turn, so this anomaly alone does not explain both omissions. Two additional remote-created test chats had matching update/completion timestamps; their phone visibility was not independently recorded in the investigation.

Impact and workaround

Recent work appears lost on the phone despite intact host history. Keeping the affected chats pinned currently avoids relying on the ordinary project listing. Restarting both devices did not resolve the underlying issue.

Possible investigation areas include remote project-list filtering/index invalidation, pin versus unpinned enumeration, and registration/update metadata for tool-created or forked chats. These are hypotheses only; the mobile cache and remote list implementation have not been inspected or modified.

Related reports

• #35800: Remote omits desktop-created threads on Windows.
• #22806: Mobile remote sidebar/project ordering and pins differ from desktop.
• #33579: Readable local tasks missing from normal task listings.

This report adds Android version information, successful host-side project association checks, the pin/unpin visibility boundary, and a stale updatedAt observation. No credentials, transcripts, private chat names, session IDs or filesystem paths are included.

Start with the remote list_threads and list_projects entry points, then compare their results with read_thread and the pin/unpin mutations for the affected project chats. Reproduce the sequence using the stated Android and Windows environments, including top-level and forked chats. Done means all non-archived chats appear in the project list, and unpinning returns them to that list without requiring a new message.