codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix macOS Codex Desktop Settings show "Unable to save" for sandbox/approval config writes due to configVersionConflict

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

Codex Desktop: 26.513.31313 Codex Desktop bundle version: 2867

What subscription do you have?

plus

What platform is your computer?

Platform: macOS 14.6.1, arm64

What issue are you seeing?

Changing user settings in Codex Desktop Preferences, especially sandbox / permissions / approval-related settings, repeatedly shows:

Unable to save

The config file itself is writable and can be manually edited. For example, manually adding this to $CODEX_HOME/config.toml works and is read by the CLI:

sandbox_mode = "workspace-write"

The CLI also parses the resulting config successfully.

Expected behavior

Codex Desktop Preferences should save sandbox/approval settings successfully.

If the config has changed since the Preferences page last read it, Desktop should recover by re-reading the latest config version and retrying the write, or by batching/serializing related writes so they use the current config version.

Actual behavior

Desktop Preferences reports Unable to save.

Desktop logs show repeated config/value/write failures with:

error={"code":-32600,"data":{"config_write_error_code":"configVersionConflict"},"message":"Configuration was modified since last read. Fetch latest version and retry."}
method=config/value/write

Redacted log evidence

The following snippets are from:

~/Library/Logs/com.openai.codex/2026/05/18/*.log

Sensitive identifiers and local details are not included beyond the generic method/error fields.

2026-05-18T04:56:31.437Z error [electron-message-handler] Request failed
error={"code":-32600,"data":{"config_write_error_code":"configVersionConflict"},"message":"Configuration was modified since last read. Fetch latest version and retry."}
method=config/value/write

2026-05-18T07:06:09.657Z error [electron-message-handler] Request failed
error={"code":-32600,"data":{"config_write_error_code":"configVersionConflict"},"message":"Configuration was modified since last read. Fetch latest version and retry."}
method=config/value/write

2026-05-18T07:10:09.537Z error [electron-message-handler] Request failed
error={"code":-32600,"data":{"config_write_error_code":"configVersionConflict"},"message":"Configuration was modified since last read. Fetch latest version and retry."}
method=config/value/write

There are many repeated occurrences across several Desktop log files from the same day.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Reproduction steps

1. Start Codex Desktop on macOS.
2. Open Preferences / Settings.
3. Change a setting that writes to $CODEX_HOME/config.toml, such as sandbox mode or approval-related settings.
4. Observe that the UI shows Unable to save.
5. Check ~/Library/Logs/com.openai.codex/....
6. Observe config/value/write failures with config_write_error_code=configVersionConflict.

Workaround

Manually editing $CODEX_HOME/config.toml works. For example:

sandbox_mode = "workspace-write"

This confirms the problem is not a basic filesystem permission failure. It appears to be a Desktop Preferences/app-server config write version conflict.

What is the expected behavior?

No response

Additional information

will this be fixed in next codex app version