codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Remote control stays offline after switching Business accounts; enrollment fails with MFA required

What happened?

Codex mobile remote control stopped connecting after switching between two ChatGPT Business accounts on the same Windows PC / Codex Desktop install.

Setup:

• Windows PC running Codex Desktop from Microsoft Store / WindowsApps
• Codex Desktop launches WSL app-server (runCodexInWindowsSubsystemForLinux = true)
• Two different ChatGPT Business accounts are used on the same Windows Codex Desktop install and matching iPhone ChatGPT app sessions
• Remote control worked previously for both accounts when signing out/in on desktop and iPhone

After switching accounts, mobile now sees the computer but reports it as offline / last seen ~11 hours ago. Switching back to the account that worked previously no longer fixes it.

Expected behavior

After signing into the same Business account/workspace on Codex Desktop and ChatGPT iOS, the mobile app should show the desktop as online and allow remote control.

Actual behavior

The mobile app only shows a stale computer record as offline / last seen hours ago. Locally, no fresh remote_control_enrollments row is created for the currently signed-in Business account.

Relevant logs / diagnostics

Windows-side Codex logs show remote control attempting to enroll, then failing with MFA required:

remote control server enrollment failed at `https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/wham/remote/control/server/enroll`: HTTP 403 Forbidden
body: {"detail":"Multi-factor authentication required"}

One example request id from the local logs:

request-id: d1591fd5-7d6c-4097-a6cc-d9594ad6d5f9
cf-ray: 9ff792f04e528de9-SIN

The local app-server process is running and remote control is enabled:

/mnt/c/Users/.../.codex/bin/wsl/.../codex app-server --analytics-default-enabled
CODEX_HOME=/home/.../.codex-app

{"status":"alreadyEnabled","remoteControlEnabled":true,"socketPath":"/home/.../.codex-app/app-server-control/app-server-control.sock","cliVersion":"0.133.0-alpha.1"}

Config tried

All relevant configs have both flags enabled:

[features]
remote_control = true
remote_connections = true

The desktop WSL config also has:

[features]
goals = true
remote_control = true
remote_connections = true

Workarounds tried

• Signed out/in on desktop and iPhone with matching Business workspace
• Refreshed CLI auth for WSL and Windows-side Codex
• Restarted Codex Desktop
• Cleared local remote_control_enrollments rows from:
  • ~/.codex-app/state_5.sqlite
  • ~/.codex/state_5.sqlite
  • C:\Users\...\.codex\state_5.sqlite
• Added both remote_control = true and remote_connections = true
• Tried Windows codex.exe remote-control, but it fails because the daemon lifecycle is Unix-only:

Error: codex app-server daemon lifecycle is only supported on Unix platforms

• Tried WSL codex remote-control start --json, but this install lacks the standalone daemon-managed path:

managed standalone Codex install not found at ~/.codex-app/packages/standalone/current/codex

Notes

This may be related to account switching / MFA state not being propagated to remote-control enrollment. The visible mobile computer appears to be server-side stale after local enrollment rows are cleared.

Potentially related issues: #19301, #4432, #6506.