[macOS][In-app browser] Allow location is not persisted and setting Allow in browser settings is prevented

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

26.915.31945 (build 9922), read from the installed ChatGPT.app Info.plist rather than the About dialog. Bundle identifier: com.openai.codex.

What subscription do you have?

Not collected for this report.

What platform is your computer?

macOS 26.6.2, arm64.

What issue are you seeing?

The internal / in-app browser does not persist the user's "Allow location" choice. Attempts to set location access to Allow through the browser settings are also prevented, leaving no working settings-based way to retain the permission.

These are two related user-observed symptoms:

1. Selecting "Allow location" does not produce a retained location permission.
2. Manually trying to set location access to Allow in the browser settings is prevented as well.

This concerns website geolocation permission inside the built-in browser.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

The following describes the user's reported workflow; it was not independently reproduced during issue filing:

1. Open a website that requests location access in the desktop app's internal browser.
2. Choose "Allow location".
3. Check the resulting permission state / continue using the website: the Allow choice is not retained.
4. Open the browser settings and try to set location permission to Allow.
5. Observe that the settings change is prevented as well.

The precise event at which the permission is lost (immediately, on reload, on tab reopening, or after an app restart) has not yet been isolated. The exact settings path and any error text were not captured.

What is the expected behavior?

An explicit location permission grant should be retained for the scope presented to the user and honored for that site. Browser settings should allow the user to inspect and change that permission.

If location access is unsupported or restricted by an overriding policy, the UI should clearly explain the restriction and should not present an Allow flow that appears to work but cannot be retained.

Additional information

Related: https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/33436 — "Windows built-in browser denies geolocation after permission prompt" (currently open). That report documents geolocation failing after Allow on Windows, but does not explicitly document permission persistence or the inability to set Allow through browser settings. This report records those symptoms on macOS; whether they share a root cause is unconfirmed.

Impact: the user cannot retain an explicit location grant or resolve the problem through browser settings, interfering with use and validation of location-dependent websites.

Filed by Codex at the user's explicit request. The symptoms above are user-reported; the installed app version and macOS version were checked locally. No root cause is asserted, and no independent browser reproduction, screenshots, or logs are attached.

No source file, test, or entry point is identified. Start by reproducing the location-permission flow in the macOS in-app browser, checking when the Allow choice is lost and what happens in browser settings. Done means either retaining and honoring the site grant, or clearly explaining an enforced restriction without offering a nonfunctional Allow flow.