codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Codex Desktop: restored archived chat disappears after deleting its project and sending a new message [1 participants]

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

26.513.31313 (2867)

What subscription do you have?

Not checked

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.1.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

After deleting a project, an archived chat that belonged to that project can still be opened from the Archived Conversations view and its previous messages are visible. However, restoring/unarchiving that chat does not make it appear in the normal/home conversation list or sidebar.

If I open that chat from Archived Conversations and send a new message, the thread then disappears from both places:

• it is not shown in the normal/home conversation list or sidebar;
• it is no longer shown in the archived/restored conversations view;
• the conversation becomes unreachable from the UI even though it was visible before sending the message.

This looks like a thread/archive restore indexing or state transition bug triggered by deleting the original project before restoring the archived conversation.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. In Codex Desktop, create or use a project that has at least one conversation.
2. Archive that conversation.
3. Delete the project that originally contained the archived conversation.
4. Open Archived Conversations.
5. Restore/unarchive the archived conversation.
6. Observe that the restored conversation does not appear in the normal/home conversation list or sidebar.
7. Open the conversation from Archived Conversations. The previous chat history is visible.
8. Send a new prompt/message in that conversation.
9. Go back to the normal/home conversation list and Archived Conversations.
10. Observe that the conversation is missing from both places and cannot be reached from the UI.

What is the expected behavior?

A restored archived conversation should remain visible and reachable after its original project has been deleted.

Specifically:

• restoring/unarchiving should move the conversation back into an active list, or into a clear "orphaned/deleted project" location;
• sending a new message in the restored conversation should keep the thread active and visible;
• a thread should not disappear from both the active conversation list and the archived conversations list.

Additional information

This may be related to other Codex Desktop archive/session visibility issues, but the trigger here is different because the original project was deleted before the archived chat was restored and continued.

Related/adjacent issues:

• #11907: restored archived conversation does not appear in the active list until app restart.
• #20317: archived local thread cannot be resumed after restore due to sessions/ vs archived_sessions/ path mismatch.
• #20732: archived chats are hidden from the normal chat list.
• #20833 / #21128: project/sidebar thread visibility and indexing issues.