[Windows] Work mode shows stale model catalog (GPT-5.5 instead of GPT-5.6) on one PC only

[sebastianmarting]

What version of the Codex/ChatGPT App are you using?

26.715.12143

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows x64 (work-managed PC; exact Windows build not currently available)

What issue are you seeing?

In the unified ChatGPT desktop app, Chat mode correctly shows GPT-5.6, but Work mode only shows an older model catalog (GPT-5.5, GPT-5.4, and GPT-5.4 Mini).

This happens only on one Windows PC at work. With the same ChatGPT account:

• Work mode shows GPT-5.6 in the web app.
• Work mode shows GPT-5.6 in the Android app.
• Work mode shows GPT-5.6 on other PCs.
• Chat mode on the affected PC also shows GPT-5.6 correctly.

Therefore, the account is entitled to the model and the problem appears to be a device-local stale model catalog, runtime, cache, or configuration issue specific to Work/Codex.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open ChatGPT desktop app version 26.715.12143 on the affected Windows PC.
2. Open Chat mode and inspect the model selector.
3. Observe that GPT-5.6 is available.
4. Switch to Work mode.
5. Open a new Work task and inspect the model selector.
6. Observe that GPT-5.6 is missing and the newest visible model is GPT-5.5.

Expected behavior

Work mode should load the same current model availability associated with the account and show GPT-5.6, as it does on the web, Android, and other PCs.

Actual behavior

Work mode on this single PC consistently loads an older model list, while Chat mode in the same app loads the current list.

Troubleshooting already attempted

• Fully closed and reopened the app.
• Ended the app process and restarted it.
• Used Windows Repair/Reset for the app.
• Reset did not clear the login/session; the app reopened already authenticated.
• Confirmed that the installed app version is 26.715.12143.
• Confirmed that the issue is not account-wide by testing the same account on web, Android, and other PCs.
• Created new Work tasks; the stale model list remains.

Potentially relevant prior local issue

This same PC previously had a Codex/Work environment problem involving persistent local state and a possibly stale runtime/configuration. The app had reintroduced a Windows sandbox setting ([windows] sandbox = "elevated") and showed an isolated-environment setup warning. There was suspicion at the time of a stale or missing codex.exe runtime path or persistent state under local Codex directories.

That earlier issue may be unrelated, but it suggests that this PC may retain stale Codex runtime/configuration data even after the Windows app reset.

Additional information

The problem looks similar to a renderer/runtime or catalog mismatch rather than a normal staged rollout, because the same account already has GPT-5.6 in Work everywhere except this one device. A supported way to force-refresh the Work model catalog or completely rebuild the local Codex runtime/state would be helpful.

Screenshots are available showing the different model selectors in Chat and Work on the same PC.

[github-actions]

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

• GPT-5.6 missing from ChatGPT Classic model picker after 1.2026.184 update #34031

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[sebastianmarting]

I found two closely related reports that may point to the same underlying catalog/cache defect:

• GPT-5.6 missing from ChatGPT Classic model picker after 1.2026.184 update #34031: GPT-5.6 missing from the ChatGPT Classic desktop picker while still available on the web for the same account.
• Codex CLI /model picker hides GPT-5.6 when models_cache.json is stale #33146: Codex CLI /model picker hides GPT-5.6 because ~/.codex/models_cache.json is rewritten with an older effective client_version and a reduced catalog containing only GPT-5.5, GPT-5.4, GPT-5.4 Mini, GPT-5.3 Codex Spark, and auto-review.

#33146 is especially relevant because its stale catalog is almost identical to the catalog shown by Work on this affected Windows PC. A follow-up reproduction there shows that even a newly started codex app-server proxy from a current executable can rewrite the shared cache with an older effective client version, so simply updating or reinstalling the visible app may not be enough.

This makes the likely Windows-specific failure path:

1. Chat mode loads the current ChatGPT catalog and shows GPT-5.6.
2. Work/Codex uses a separate app-server/model-manager path.
3. A bundled or persisted Codex proxy/runtime rewrites the shared model cache with an older effective client version.
4. Work then displays only the older GPT-5.5/5.4 catalog on this device.

Potential diagnostic locations on Windows:

%USERPROFILE%\.codex\models_cache.json
%USERPROFILE%\.codex\
%USERPROFILE%\.cache\codex-runtimes\
%LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenAI\
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\*ChatGPT*\

Useful checks would be:

• the client_version, fetched_at, and model slugs in models_cache.json;
• the actual executable path and version of every running codex.exe / app-server proxy process;
• whether starting Work rewrites the cache to an older client_version or smaller model list;
• whether the bundled catalog contains GPT-5.6 while the picker-visible cache does not;
• whether the desktop app reset leaves the shared CODEX_HOME cache untouched.

The affected desktop app version is 26.715.12143. The same account and entitlement work correctly in Work on web, Android, and other PCs, so this does not appear to be an account rollout issue.