Windows Desktop: Sidebar shows No chats and no projects after update, but Search can still find/open existing chats

[NedMalki-Chief]

What version of the Codex App are you using?

Codex CLI bundled with the app reports:

codex-cli 0.124.0-alpha.2

The executable metadata reports:

• FileVersion: 0.124.0-alpha.2
• ProductVersion: 0.124.0-alpha.2

I can provide the exact desktop app version from Help > About Codex if needed.

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11 x64

What issue are you seeing?

After the recent Codex Desktop update on Windows, the left sidebar no longer shows my chat history, pinned chats, local folders, or projects.

The sidebar shows:

• Chats
• No chats

I also cannot open local folders/projects from the normal sidebar/project flow.

However, the chat data is not gone. Search still works:

• If I click Search, I can find the missing chats.
• I can open existing chats from Search.
• I tested one of the missing chats by sending a message saying test.
• The message was accepted and the chat continued.
• Even after sending that new message, the chat still did not appear under Chats in the left sidebar.

So this appears to be a sidebar/home/project listing problem, not total session data loss.

Local data still appears to exist on disk:

• The local Codex sessions directory contains 33 rollout-*.jsonl files.
• The local Codex session_index.jsonl exists and contains 60 indexed thread entries.
• The index includes thread names updated on 2026-04-21, 2026-04-22, 2026-04-23, and 2026-04-24.
• The local Codex state_5.sqlite exists and was recently updated.

Logs around startup show thread/list requests returning without an obvious request error, but the UI still renders an empty chat list. Logs also show this warning around the update/startup window:

[global-state] Failed to load global state errorMessage="Unterminated string in JSON at position 524288 (line 1 column 524289)"

What steps can reproduce the bug?

I do not have a clean deterministic repro yet. What happened:

1. Use Codex Desktop on Windows with existing chat history, pinned chats, local folders, and projects.
2. Install/restart after the recent Codex app update.
3. Open Codex Desktop.
4. Observe that the sidebar shows Chats -> No chats, with pinned chats, local folders, and projects missing.
5. Click Search.
6. Search can still find the missing chats.
7. Open an existing chat from Search and send a new message.
8. The chat remains absent from the left sidebar even after new activity.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex Desktop should continue showing existing chat history, pinned chats, local folders, and projects after an app update.

At minimum, if Search can still find and open a chat, that chat should also appear in the normal Chats sidebar list, especially after new activity in that chat.

Additional information

This may be related to prior history/session issues, but it seems broader than a single project timeline path mismatch:

• Related: Codex App: Working Threads Missing After Latest Update #10640
• Related: Windows Desktop: Project Timeline shows no history despite existing threads (path identity mismatch with OneDrive/GoodSync/junction/\\?\ prefix) #18253

The important part: this does not look like all local data was deleted. Existing chats remain discoverable and usable through Search. The failure appears specific to the sidebar/home/project listing and possibly pinned/project state.

[github-actions]

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

• Chats not displaying under project in sidebar #18187
• threads / projects in sidebar missing  #18640
• Threads keep disappearing from the sidebar even with "All chats" selected #17970
• Windows Codex Desktop rewrites threads.cwd to \\?\-prefixed paths on startup, splitting one workspace into two and hiding thread history #19128
• Windows app: older local threads disappear from sidebar and sidebar search after restart while still present on disk #17540

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[constansino]

I hit what looks like the same sidebar/project-listing class of bug, but on a larger local history.

Observed on Windows Codex Desktop with hundreds of local sessions:

• state_5.sqlite still had 443 threads, 436 active.
• .codex/sessions/.../rollout-*.jsonl files still existed.
• Specific project folders such as older local workspaces appeared empty in the sidebar.
• Direct codex.exe app-server probing showed thread/list supports nextCursor pagination and returns more data across pages.
• The frontend state snapshot before patching showed far fewer recent threads loaded than existed in local history.

This made the problem look like data loss, but the sessions were still on disk and still addressable by app-server. The failure was in the recent-thread/sidebar loading path.

I documented a local Windows-only workaround here:

https://github.com/constansino/codex-desktop-session-limit-patch

The workaround does not mutate .codex/state_5.sqlite, does not reorder updated_at, and does not rewrite rollout files. It keeps the official WindowsApps install untouched, copies the app resources into a separate local directory, and patches the copied frontend bundle so the initial recent-thread load follows nextCursor for multiple pages. It also raises load-more/search page sizes and gives the patched window a separate title/userData path so it can coexist with the official app.

I think the upstream fix should be one of:

• Auto-page the sidebar's recent-thread load until enough data is available for project grouping.
• Add a user-configurable local sidebar/session history cap, for example 50 / 100 / 500 / 1000 / all.
• Show a different UI state for "the list is not fully loaded yet" instead of making a folder look like it has no conversations.

This would avoid local repacking and make the behavior predictable for users with large local histories.