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Windows desktop: startup hangs on blank window after auth bootstrap 401 (no retry, no error surfaced) #30775

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Windows desktop: startup hangs on blank window after auth bootstrap 401 (no retry, no error surfaced)#30775
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appIssues related to the Codex desktop appapp-serverIssues involving app server protocol or interfacesauthIssues related to authentication and accountsbugSomething isn't workingwindows-osIssues related to Codex on Windows systems

Description

@tdmackey
tdmackey
opened on Jul 1, 2026

Codex Desktop (Windows) — startup hangs on a blank window after auth bootstrap 401

Reporter timezone: America (UTC‑7). Log timestamps are UTC (local = UTC − 7h).
Report generated: 2026‑06‑30 18:02 local (2026‑07‑01 01:02 UTC)

1. Summary

Codex Desktop launches, spawns the local app‑server (codex.exe) successfully, opens
its main window, fires ready-to-show, and requests the React root render — but the
renderer never paints. The window sits completely blank (dark) indefinitely.

Root cause in the logs: the very first authenticated call to the ChatGPT backend
(POST /wham/statsig/bootstrap) returns 401 Unauthorized. The client attempts a
token refresh, the refresh yields no token (auth_token_missing /
tokenExpiryState=missing), and from that point every request goes out with
hadToken=false → repeated 401s. The app then never retries auth — for the next
~6.5 minutes the only log activity is bundled_plugins_reconcile_skipped_features_unavailable reason=focus. The UI is wedged with "features unavailable" and no recovery path.

Two product bugs are visible here:

  1. No self‑healing / no user‑visible error. A failed statsig/auth bootstrap at
    startup leaves a permanently blank window with no spinner, no error, no
    "sign in again" prompt, and no retry. The app should surface the auth failure and/or
    retry, rather than render nothing forever.
  2. hasToken=false despite a valid, non‑expired auth.json on disk. At the moment
    of failure the on‑disk access_token was still valid (exp 2026‑07‑02, ~27h in the
    future) and a refresh_token was present, yet the app‑server reported
    hasToken=false nullReason=auth_token_missing. The failed refresh appears to have
    dropped the in‑memory token instead of falling back to the still‑valid cached access
    token.

Workaround that fixed it: fully kill all Codex processes (8 were alive), then
relaunch. Simply relaunching from the icon re‑focused the still‑running wedged instance
and did nothing. Reset-AppxPackage also did nothing (it clears the MSIX container but
not ~/.codex, and does not terminate the running Electron processes).

2. Environment

Item Value
OS Windows 11 Pro, Build 26200 (10.0.26200.0)
Desktop app (installed MSIX) OpenAI.Codex 26.623.9142.0 x64, SignatureKind=Store, Status=Ok
Desktop app (config BROWSER_USE_CODEX_APP_VERSION) 26.623.61825 (note: mismatch vs installed 26.623.9142.0 — possible update in between)
App‑server / CLI codex-cli 0.142.4 (log: Current reported app-server version: currentVersion=0.142.4)
Package family OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0
AUMID OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0!App
CODEX_HOME C:\Users\<user>\.codex
buildFlavor prod, packaged=true

3. Timeline of the wedged launch (all UTC)

Time (UTC) Event
00:52:26.984 Launching app
00:52:27.336 app‑server connection starting (hostId=local, stdio)
00:52:29.564 2 saved remote connections loaded; window‑context selected remote‑ssh transport remote-ssh-codex-managed:mustafar.home.arpa (autoConnectConnectionCount=1)
00:52:29.945 local codex.exe spawned (pid 29540); transport start success
00:52:30.069 Codex CLI initialized (handshake 124 ms, outcome=success)
00:52:30.205 window main frame finished load (startupElapsedMs=95)
00:52:30.234 window ready-to-show (startupElapsedMs=125)
00:52:32.517 React root render requested (renderer visible+focused)
00:52:32.825 ⚠️ desktop_fetch_auth_401 hadToken=true tokenSource=cached willRetry=true → POST /wham/statsig/bootstrap
00:52:33.001 ⚠️ auth_status_result authMethod=chatgpt hasToken=false nullReason=auth_token_missing refreshToken=true tokenExpiryState=missing
00:52:33.046 ⚠️ sa_server_request_failed ... status=401 url=/wham/statsig/bootstrap ({"detail":"Unauthorized"})
00:52:33.610 ⚠️ desktop_fetch_auth_401 hadToken=false skipRetryReason=no_token_attached willRetry=false
00:52:33.613 ⚠️ 401 again on /wham/statsig/bootstrap
00:52:34.167–34.170 ⚠️ 401 again on /wham/statsig/bootstrap
00:52:38 → 00:59:11 No further activity except bundled_plugins_reconcile_skipped_features_unavailable reason=focus (~6.5 min). Window stays blank. No retry, no error surfaced.
~00:59:11 User force‑killed all Codex processes
01:00:07 Fresh launch → loaded normally, signed in, projects visible

Note: the window‑context selected the remote‑ssh transport (mustafar.home.arpa) as
its app‑server, but the connection that actually initialized was hostId=local. Unclear
whether the remote selection contributed; flagging it in case the "selected transport"
vs "initialized transport" mismatch is relevant.

4. Key log evidence (verbatim)

2026-07-01T00:52:32.517Z info [electron-message-handler] [statsig-refresh-diagnostics] React root render requested rendererWebContentsId=1 rendererWindowVisible=true windowType=electron
2026-07-01T00:52:32.825Z warning [electron-fetch-wrapper] desktop_fetch_auth_401 hadToken=true skipRetryReason=null target="POST https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/wham/:param/:param" tokenSource=cached willRetry=true
2026-07-01T00:52:33.001Z warning [AppServerConnection] app_server_connection.auth_status_result authMethod=chatgpt cacheWrite=null hasToken=false nullReason=auth_token_missing refreshToken=true tokenExpiryState=missing
2026-07-01T00:52:33.046Z warning [electron-message-handler] sa_server_request_failed attachAuth=true attachIntegrityState=true errorMessage={"detail":"Unauthorized"} method=post routePattern=/wham/statsig/bootstrap status=401 url=/wham/statsig/bootstrap
2026-07-01T00:52:33.610Z warning [electron-fetch-wrapper] desktop_fetch_auth_401 hadToken=false skipRetryReason=no_token_attached target="POST https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/wham/:param/:param" tokenSource=cached willRetry=false
2026-07-01T00:52:34.170Z warning [electron-message-handler] sa_server_request_failed ... status=401 url=/wham/statsig/bootstrap
2026-07-01T00:52:38.089Z info [bundled-plugins] bundled_plugins_reconcile_skipped_features_unavailable reason=focus
... (repeats with no other activity until kill) ...
2026-07-01T00:59:11.932Z info [bundled-plugins] bundled_plugins_reconcile_skipped_features_unavailable reason=focus

Full main‑process log is attached as codex-desktop-wedged-session.log.

5. Auth state at time of failure (redacted — NO token material included)

Read from ~/.codex/auth.json. No secrets are included in this report; only
metadata / expiries.

Field Value
auth_mode chatgpt
OPENAI_API_KEY set false
access_token exp (UTC) 2026‑07‑02 03:14:19 ← still valid (~27h in future) at failure
id_token exp (UTC) 2026‑06‑22 04:14:19 ← expired
refresh_token present true
account_id present true (value withheld — can be shared privately)
last_refresh (UTC) 2026‑06‑22 03:14:34 (~9 days before the incident)
auth.json mtime (UTC) 2026‑06‑22 03:14:34 (file untouched since last refresh)
Current time at failure (UTC) 2026‑07‑01 01:02

Notable: access_token was not expired, yet the server 401'd it and the
refresh failed to produce a token. Possible server‑side session invalidation (e.g.,
re‑login elsewhere, token‑family rotation, or the 26.623.61825 → 26.623.9142.0 app
update). Whatever the cause, the client's handling — dropping to hasToken=false and
then never retrying while rendering a blank window — is the reportable defect.

The CLI's own codex login status (same CODEX_HOME) reports "Logged in using ChatGPT"
because it only reads auth.json and does not validate against the server — so the CLI
and the desktop app disagree about auth state.

6. Secondary findings (not the cause, but worth flagging)

  • ~/.codex/logs_2.sqlite is ~875 MB (917,557,248 bytes). Abnormally large local log
    DB; appears to grow unbounded.
  • Stale CODEX_CLI_PATH in ~/.codex/config.toml points to
    ...\bin\aec6b7c6fcdfb66a\codex.exe, a hashed dir that no longer exists (current is
    ...\d8dfab353c0001dc\). Harmless but stale after updates.
  • New‑session desktop logs are 0 bytes (...-53708-t0-... and -t1- from the healthy
    01:00 launch were both empty), so the healthy run produced no main‑process log lines in
    that file — may indicate a logging path/flush issue on some launches.

7. Reproduction / expected vs actual

Steps: Launch Codex Desktop while the stored ChatGPT session is being rejected by the
backend (401 on /wham/statsig/bootstrap) and the token refresh fails.

Actual: Window opens and stays permanently blank; no error, no spinner, no retry.
Relaunching re‑focuses the wedged process. Only a full process kill recovers it.

Expected: On auth bootstrap failure, either (a) transparently retry with backoff,
(b) fall back to the still‑valid cached access_token, or (c) surface a visible
"couldn't sign in / please re‑authenticate" state instead of a blank window.

8. Workaround (for other users hitting this)

# Fully terminate every Codex process, then relaunch clean:
Get-Process Codex, codex -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force
Start-Sleep 2
Start-Process "explorer.exe" "shell:AppsFolder\OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0!App"

If it still comes back blank with 401s in the log, re‑authenticate:
codex logout then codex login.

9. Attached files

  • codex-desktop-wedged-session.log — full main‑process log of the wedged 00:52 launch
    (source: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0\LocalCache\Local\Codex\Logs\2026\07\01\codex-desktop-bbe2b72a-f166-4885-b26e-55c726f16067-50788-t0-i1-005226-0.log).
Full main-process log — wedged 00:52 UTC launch (verbatim) 
2026-07-01T00:52:26.984Z info Launching app agentRunId=null allowDebugMenu=false allowDevtools=false allowInspectElement=false buildFlavor=prod enableSparkle=false enableUpdater=true nodeEnv=undefined packaged=true platform=win32
2026-07-01T00:52:27.331Z info Appshot hotkey inactive configured=true enabled=true platform=win32
2026-07-01T00:52:27.335Z info [remote-connections/window-context] refresh_started previousConnectionCount=0
2026-07-01T00:52:27.336Z info [AppServerConnection] Initializing app-server transport
2026-07-01T00:52:27.336Z info [AppServerConnection] Starting app-server connection hostId=local transport=stdio
2026-07-01T00:52:27.336Z info [AppServerConnection] app_server_connection.state_changed cause=start_process connectionError=null currentConnectionId=null currentState=disconnected hasConnection=false hostId=local initialized=false initializeInFlight=false next=connecting pendingClientRequests=0 pendingInternalRequests=0 previous=disconnected reconnectAttempt=0 reconnectTimerScheduled=false restartInFlight=false targetConnectionId=null targetReadyState=null transport=stdio
2026-07-01T00:52:29.564Z info [remote-connections/window-context] load_completed savedRemoteConnectionCount=2 totalConnectionCount=2
2026-07-01T00:52:29.564Z info [WindowContext] [ssh-websocket-v0] selected app-server transport hostId=remote-ssh-codex-managed:mustafar.home.arpa
2026-07-01T00:52:29.565Z info [remote-connections/window-context] reconcile_completed creationFailureCount=0 nextConnectionCount=2 previousConnectionCount=0
2026-07-01T00:52:29.565Z info [remote-connections/window-context] refresh_completed autoConnectConnectionCount=1 codexManagedConnectionCount=2 discoveredConnectionCount=0 nextConnectionCount=2 previousConnectionCount=0
2026-07-01T00:52:29.945Z info [StdioConnection] stdio_transport_spawned argsCount=2 executablePath="C:\\Program Files\\WindowsApps\\OpenAI.Codex_26.623.9142.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\\app\\resources\\codex.exe" pid=29540 spawnCommand="C:\\Program Files\\WindowsApps\\OpenAI.Codex_26.623.9142.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\\app\\resources\\codex.exe"
2026-07-01T00:52:29.945Z info [AppServerConnection] Transport start success connectionId=1 hostId=local transport=stdio
2026-07-01T00:52:30.068Z info [AppServerConnection] Current reported app-server version: currentVersion=0.142.4 hostId=local
2026-07-01T00:52:30.069Z info [AppServerConnection] initialize_handshake_result durationMs=124 initializeRequestId=__codex_initialize__ outcome=success transportKind=stdio
2026-07-01T00:52:30.069Z info [AppServerConnection] Codex CLI initialized
2026-07-01T00:52:30.069Z info [AppServerConnection] app_server_connection.state_changed cause=post_initialize_connection_state connectionError=null currentConnectionId=1 currentState=connecting hasConnection=true hostId=local initialized=true initializeInFlight=false next=connected pendingClientRequests=0 pendingInternalRequests=0 previous=connecting reconnectAttempt=0 reconnectTimerScheduled=false restartInFlight=false targetConnectionId=1 targetReadyState=1 transport=stdio
2026-07-01T00:52:30.151Z info [IpcRouter] I am the router
2026-07-01T00:52:30.205Z info [window-manager] window main frame finished load appearance=primary hostId=local startupElapsedMs=95 webContentsId=1 windowId=1
2026-07-01T00:52:30.230Z info [bundled-plugins] bundled_plugins_reconcile_skipped_features_unavailable reason=focus
2026-07-01T00:52:30.234Z info [window-manager] window ready-to-show appearance=primary hostId=local startupElapsedMs=125 webContentsId=1 windowId=1
2026-07-01T00:52:32.517Z info [electron-message-handler] [statsig-refresh-diagnostics] React root render requested rendererWebContentsId=1 rendererWindowAppearance=primary rendererWindowFocused=true rendererWindowId=1 rendererWindowVisible=true windowType=electron
2026-07-01T00:52:32.530Z info [electron-fetch-handler] codex-home request hostId=local params={"hostId":"local","origin":{"_events":{"render-process-gone":[null,null],"destroyed":[null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null],"unresponsive":[null,null]},"_eventsCount":31,"ipc":{"_events":{},"_eventsCount":1,"_invokeHandlers":{}},"navigationHistory":{}},"signal":{}}
2026-07-01T00:52:32.530Z info [AppServerConnection] response_routed broadcastFallback=false conversationId=null durationMs=1 errorCode=null hadInternalHandler=false hadPending=true method=remoteControl/status/read originWebcontentsId=1 requestId=b3e086b8-482c-4c84-85bf-0c33d5ba4043 targetDestroyed=false
2026-07-01T00:52:32.761Z info [wsl] eligible distro list listResult="NAME                   STATE           VERSION\n* Ubuntu                 Stopped         2\n  Fedora                 Stopped         2\n  docker-desktop         Stopped         2\n  Ubuntu-24.04           Stopped         2\n  openSUSE-Tumbleweed    Stopped         2"
2026-07-01T00:52:32.763Z info [AppServerConnection] response_routed broadcastFallback=false conversationId=null durationMs=0 errorCode=null hadInternalHandler=false hadPending=true method=account/read originWebcontentsId=1 requestId=59d76da0-3cf4-4911-90ea-badc5cc3c5ad targetDestroyed=false
2026-07-01T00:52:32.770Z info [AppServerConnection] response_routed broadcastFallback=false conversationId=null durationMs=7 errorCode=null hadInternalHandler=false hadPending=true method=fs/readFile originWebcontentsId=1 requestId=5b66f0da-29c7-4d7e-a8f7-fc13bf41bb6f targetDestroyed=false
2026-07-01T00:52:32.770Z info [electron-fetch-handler] codex-home request hostId=local params={"hostId":"local","origin":{"_events":{"render-process-gone":[null,null],"destroyed":[null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null],"unresponsive":[null,null]},"_eventsCount":31,"ipc":{"_events":{},"_eventsCount":1,"_invokeHandlers":{}},"navigationHistory":{}},"signal":{}}
2026-07-01T00:52:32.825Z warning [electron-fetch-wrapper] desktop_fetch_auth_401 hadToken=true skipRetryReason=null target="POST https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/wham/:param/:param" tokenSource=cached willRetry=true
2026-07-01T00:52:33.001Z warning [AppServerConnection] app_server_connection.auth_status_result authMethod=chatgpt cacheWrite=null hasToken=false nullReason=auth_token_missing refreshToken=true tokenExpiryState=missing
2026-07-01T00:52:33.046Z warning [electron-message-handler] sa_server_request_failed attachAuth=true attachIntegrityState=true errorCode=undefined errorMessage={"detail":"Unauthorized"} errorName=Error errorStack="Error: {\"detail\":\"Unauthorized\"}\n    at Object.postMessage (app://-/assets/vscode-api-D5f6BQ2W.js:1:5199)\n    at e.dispatchMessage (app://-/assets/vscode-api-D5f6BQ2W.js:1:6343)\n    at async JK (app://-/assets/app-main-CDVkM6Ux.js:47:207210)\n    at async Object.mutationFn (app://-/assets/app-main-CDVkM6Ux.js:47:218924)" hasRequestBody=true method=post rendererWebContentsId=1 rendererWindowAppearance=primary rendererWindowFocused=true rendererWindowId=1 rendererWindowVisible=true requestHeaderNames=["OAI-Language","X-OpenAI-Attach-Auth","X-OpenAI-Attach-Integrity-State","originator"] routePattern=/wham/statsig/bootstrap status=401 url=/wham/statsig/bootstrap
2026-07-01T00:52:33.392Z info [AppServerConnection] response_routed broadcastFallback=false conversationId=null durationMs=625 errorCode=null hadInternalHandler=false hadPending=true method=thread/list originWebcontentsId=1 requestId=e6dd81a7-876a-4549-893f-5533cef6cf79 targetDestroyed=false
2026-07-01T00:52:33.610Z warning [electron-fetch-wrapper] desktop_fetch_auth_401 hadToken=false skipRetryReason=no_token_attached target="POST https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/wham/:param/:param" tokenSource=cached willRetry=false
2026-07-01T00:52:33.613Z warning [electron-message-handler] sa_server_request_failed attachAuth=true attachIntegrityState=true errorCode=undefined errorMessage={"detail":"Unauthorized"} errorName=Error errorStack="Error: {\"detail\":\"Unauthorized\"}\n    at Object.postMessage (app://-/assets/vscode-api-D5f6BQ2W.js:1:5199)\n    at e.dispatchMessage (app://-/assets/vscode-api-D5f6BQ2W.js:1:6343)\n    at app://-/assets/vscode-api-D5f6BQ2W.js:1:6823\n    at Ae (app://-/assets/vscode-api-D5f6BQ2W.js:1:4739)\n    at U (app://-/assets/vscode-api-D5f6BQ2W.js:1:4802)\n    at async JK (app://-/assets/app-main-CDVkM6Ux.js:47:207210)\n    at async Object.mutationFn (app://-/assets/app-main-CDVkM6Ux.js:47:218924)" hasRequestBody=true method=post rendererWebContentsId=1 rendererWindowAppearance=primary rendererWindowFocused=true rendererWindowId=1 rendererWindowVisible=true requestHeaderNames=["OAI-Language","X-OpenAI-Attach-Auth","X-OpenAI-Attach-Integrity-State","originator"] routePattern=/wham/statsig/bootstrap status=401 url=/wham/statsig/bootstrap
2026-07-01T00:52:34.167Z warning [electron-fetch-wrapper] desktop_fetch_auth_401 hadToken=false skipRetryReason=no_token_attached target="POST https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/wham/:param/:param" tokenSource=cached willRetry=false
2026-07-01T00:52:34.170Z warning [electron-message-handler] sa_server_request_failed attachAuth=true attachIntegrityState=true errorCode=undefined errorMessage={"detail":"Unauthorized"} errorName=Error errorStack="Error: {\"detail\":\"Unauthorized\"}\n    at Object.postMessage (app://-/assets/vscode-api-D5f6BQ2W.js:1:5199)\n    at e.dispatchMessage (app://-/assets/vscode-api-D5f6BQ2W.js:1:6343)\n    at app://-/assets/vscode-api-D5f6BQ2W.js:1:6823\n    at Ae (app://-/assets/vscode-api-D5f6BQ2W.js:1:4739)\n    at U (app://-/assets/vscode-api-D5f6BQ2W.js:1:4802)\n    at async JK (app://-/assets/app-main-CDVkM6Ux.js:47:207210)\n    at async Object.mutationFn (app://-/assets/app-main-CDVkM6Ux.js:47:218924)" hasRequestBody=true method=post rendererWebContentsId=1 rendererWindowAppearance=primary rendererWindowFocused=true rendererWindowId=1 rendererWindowVisible=true requestHeaderNames=["OAI-Language","X-OpenAI-Attach-Auth","X-OpenAI-Attach-Integrity-State","originator"] routePattern=/wham/statsig/bootstrap status=401 url=/wham/statsig/bootstrap
2026-07-01T00:52:38.089Z info [bundled-plugins] bundled_plugins_reconcile_skipped_features_unavailable reason=focus
2026-07-01T00:53:17.547Z info [bundled-plugins] bundled_plugins_reconcile_skipped_features_unavailable reason=focus
2026-07-01T00:53:35.117Z info [bundled-plugins] bundled_plugins_reconcile_skipped_features_unavailable reason=focus
2026-07-01T00:54:14.918Z info [bundled-plugins] bundled_plugins_reconcile_skipped_features_unavailable reason=focus
2026-07-01T00:54:19.744Z info [bundled-plugins] bundled_plugins_reconcile_skipped_features_unavailable reason=focus
2026-07-01T00:55:04.245Z info [bundled-plugins] bundled_plugins_reconcile_skipped_features_unavailable reason=focus
2026-07-01T00:59:11.932Z info [bundled-plugins] bundled_plugins_reconcile_skipped_features_unavailable reason=focus

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