codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Codex Desktop voice dictation silently no-ops when microphone permission is missing

What version of the Codex App are you using?

Codex Desktop 26.519.31651 (CFBundleVersion 3017)

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT account; subscription tier not included here.

What platform is your computer?

macOS

What issue are you seeing?

Codex Desktop voice dictation can appear to do nothing when microphone permission is missing or has not been granted.

The documented shortcut is Ctrl+M while the composer is visible. In this state, pressing/holding Ctrl+M in the focused Codex composer produced no visible recording UI, no permission prompt, and no clear error. It looked like the shortcut or feature was broken.

After checking/granting microphone permission for Codex in macOS privacy settings, voice dictation started working.

Steps to reproduce

1. On macOS, use Codex Desktop with microphone permission missing, denied, stale, or not yet granted.
2. Focus the Codex composer.
3. Press/hold Ctrl+M as documented for voice dictation.
4. Observe that nothing obvious happens: no recording UI, no permission prompt, and no user-facing explanation.
5. Grant/check microphone permission for Codex in macOS System Settings.
6. Retry Ctrl+M.
7. Dictation works.

Expected behavior

If microphone permission is missing or denied, Codex should show a clear user-facing message such as:

Microphone permission is required for voice dictation. Enable Codex in macOS System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone.

Ideally it should also trigger the standard macOS permission prompt when possible.

Actual behavior

The shortcut appears to silently no-op until microphone permission is checked/granted.

Why this matters

The docs correctly say to use Ctrl+M, but if permission is missing, the failure mode gives no clue that the problem is macOS microphone access. Users can easily conclude the shortcut or dictation feature is broken, especially because other dictation failures in Codex do show visible transcription errors after recording.

Related issues searched

I searched for existing issues around voice dictation, Ctrl+M, microphone permission, and silent/no-op behavior. I found related transcription failures and Windows-specific silent transcript issues, but not this exact macOS permission/no-visible-feedback case.