codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Codex Desktop Windows: repeated silent app/window closes and sidechat becomes non-interactive after running

What version of the Codex App are you using?

Codex Desktop on Windows, installed package observed locally:

• OpenAI.Codex_26.519.2081.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
• Desktop log release annotation: 26.519.21041
• Electron annotation in crashpad process: 42.1.0

Previous package immediately before update/hang:

• OpenAI.Codex_26.513.4821.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0

What operating system are you using?

Windows 11, Windows build observed in WER report:

• 10.0.26100.8457.amd64fre.ge_release.240331-1435

What happened?

I am seeing two likely related Codex Desktop issues on Windows after the 26.519 update:

1. Codex Desktop repeatedly closes or drops the active window/session without an obvious Windows crash report. This happened around four times within roughly an hour.
2. A sidechat can run for a while and then becomes non-interactive: I cannot type into it and it does not respond, as if the UI/session state is stuck.

The first close today appears to have happened during a Windows app update, but later closes/restarts do not appear to be normal update behavior.

Timeline / evidence

All times below are local machine time, Europe/Copenhagen, 2026-05-21.

Update-time hang

Windows Event Viewer recorded:

• 00:41:59 Windows started installing update 9PLM9XGG6VKS-OpenAI.Codex
• 00:42:34 Application Hang: Codex.exe version 2886.0.0.0 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed
• 00:42:35 Windows successfully installed 9PLM9XGG6VKS-OpenAI.Codex

WER report details:

• EventType: MoAppHang
• Target app: OpenAI.Codex_26.513.4821.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0!App
• FriendlyEventName: Stopped responding and was closed
• AppPath: ...\OpenAI.Codex_26.513.4821.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\Codex.exe

Repeated later restarts / false closes

After the update, the desktop log sessions show multiple fresh Codex main-process sessions:

• session ending/last write around 05:17:07
• new session created around 05:17:13
• session ending/last write around 05:25:02
• new session created around 05:25:10
• session ending/last write around 05:28:56
• new session created around 05:29:12

For these later closes, I did not find corresponding Windows Application Error, Application Hang, or Crashpad dumps. The Codex desktop logs simply stop and a new main process/session starts.

Relevant desktop log patterns

Immediately before or around these restarts, the desktop logs are dominated by in-app browser / sidebar lifecycle and conversation-state errors. Examples:

IAB_LIFECYCLE rebound browser sidebar window ownerWebContentsId=1 previousOwnerWebContentsId=1 windowId=1
IAB_LIFECYCLE resolved browser use route conversationId=... ownerWebContentsId=1 turnId=... windowId=1
IAB_LIFECYCLE browser sidebar guest torn down conversationId=... guestWebContentsId=... windowId=1

Repeated state errors also appear:

error [electron-message-handler] Item not found in turn state itemId=call_...
error [electron-message-handler] Received turn/started for unknown conversation conversationId=...
error [electron-message-handler] Received turn/completed for unknown conversation conversationId=...

On restart/resume, the logs show interrupted turns marked as streaming:

maybe_resume_success conversationId=... latestTurnStatus=interrupted markedStreaming=true turnCount=...

For the sidechat freeze / non-interactive issue, this looks suspicious because the UI may be resuming an interrupted/stale turn as markedStreaming=true, while conversation state has already lost or mismatched the turn/tool items. After that, the sidechat can appear stuck: input unavailable and no response.

There are also repeated startup feature-protocol mismatch errors after restart:

Request failed conversationId=none error={"code":-32600,"message":"unsupported feature enablement `auth_elicitation`: currently supported features are apps, memories, mentions_v2, plugins, remote_control, tool_search, tool_suggest, tool_call_mcp_elicitation"} method=experimentalFeature/enablement/set

Expected behavior

• Codex Desktop should not silently close/restart the active app window/session after the update.
• If the app/server/session is restarted, sidechat state should recover cleanly.
• A sidechat should not become permanently non-interactive after a long-running or interrupted turn.
• If a turn is interrupted or the conversation is unknown/stale, the UI should clear the busy/streaming state and re-enable input or show a recoverable error.

Actual behavior

• The app/window appears to close or restart repeatedly without Windows recording a crash for the later events.
• Sidechat can become stuck after running for a while: user cannot write into it and it does not respond.
• Logs show unknown conversation events, missing turn-state items, interrupted turns being resumed as streaming, and heavy in-app browser/sidebar lifecycle churn.

Notes

I am intentionally not attaching full local logs because they contain local paths and potentially sensitive user/session metadata. I can provide targeted sanitized excerpts if helpful.

The repeated later false closes look distinct from the initial update-time hang. The initial hang correlates with Windows replacing the app, but the later restarts do not show as Windows app crashes and appear more related to Codex Desktop UI/session/browser-sidebar state.