[macOS] Historical local Codex tasks missing; re-added projects show No chats

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

26.908.70816 (build 9275)

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

macOS 26.0; uname -mprs: Darwin 25.0.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

Historical local Codex projects and their conversations stopped appearing in the desktop app. Re-adding the original project folders restored the project entries, but they show No chats. Project source files, workflow JSON exports, instructions, and working outputs remain available.

The issue was noticed on or before September 16, 2026. The exact disappearance time, triggering event, and cause are unknown. This concerns local Codex task history, not ordinary ChatGPT web conversations.

In-app Feedback ID: 01a0aa39-20f0-7363-bb24-df293f8affee. The local desktop log records the feedback/upload request completing without an error on September 17 at 02:23 UTC.

Read-only findings at the time of inspection on September 17

• ~/.codex/sessions contains exactly 4 JSONL transcripts, all created on September 16 between 12:37 and 12:47 UTC for the current investigation and its helper tasks.
• ~/.codex/state_5.sqlite contains exactly 4 thread rows.
• ~/.codex/archived_sessions does not exist, and the app's archived-task listing is empty.
• ~/.codex and its sessions directory are normal directories, not symlinks.
• CODEX_HOME is not set in the current inspection process environment; historical changes to it are unknown.
• Searches of relevant local application-data locations and the backup locations inspected did not identify an older session store. This is not proof that no copy exists anywhere.

No direct SQLite edits, manual reindexing, or app-data deletion were performed during this investigation. We have not established whether the historical conversations were permanently deleted.

Please investigate whether the historical tasks can be located or restored, and whether a supported migration or index-recovery procedure applies to this desktop version.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

I do not have a deterministic reproduction of the original disappearance. The observed sequence was:

1. Open the desktop app on the Mac and find that historical local Codex projects/tasks are no longer listed.
2. Re-add the existing project directories.
3. Project entries return, but show No chats; their original files remain available.
4. Inspect the local session store and archived-task list: only the four newly created investigation tasks are present.

Feedback/session reference: 01a0aa39-20f0-7363-bb24-df293f8affee.

What is the expected behavior?

Existing local Codex conversations should remain accessible under their original projects. If a migration, changed store location, or indexing problem caused their disappearance, please provide a supported way to locate/recover them and restore their project associations without replacing surviving data.

Additional information

Installed app: ChatGPT.app, bundle identifier com.openai.codex, version 26.908.70816 (build 9275), macOS 26.0.

Project instructions in AGENTS.md retain references to two predecessor tasks:

• 01a08725-56ba-7030-bdec-ebb9312ed296
• 01a088be-d404-7c61-bee4-b64fc89f656c

Read-only attempts to retrieve these IDs through the app returned No Codex thread found. These are historical references preserved in project instructions; their presence does not establish that the transcripts remain available.

Related reports reviewed:

• #27340: similar absence of older tasks from the current local store.
• #37853: similar No chats presentation after migration, but that reporter's old transcripts remained on disk, unlike what has been found here.

These reports do not establish the cause of this case. Please correlate the Feedback ID with the submitted diagnostics and advise what additional evidence is needed.

Start by correlating Feedback ID 01a0aa39-20f0-7363-bb24-df293f8affee with diagnostics and reviewing ~/.codex/sessions, state_5.sqlite, and project associations alongside reports #27340 and #37853. Determine whether the historical data was moved, deleted, or lost from the index, then document a supported recovery or migration path that preserves surviving data.