codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Windows Desktop: Sidebar shows No chats and no projects after update, but Search can still find/open existing chats [1 comments, 2 participants]

What version of the Codex App are you using?

Codex CLI bundled with the app reports:

codex-cli 0.124.0-alpha.2

The executable metadata reports:

• FileVersion: 0.124.0-alpha.2
• ProductVersion: 0.124.0-alpha.2

I can provide the exact desktop app version from Help > About Codex if needed.

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11 x64

What issue are you seeing?

After the recent Codex Desktop update on Windows, the left sidebar no longer shows my chat history, pinned chats, local folders, or projects.

The sidebar shows:

• Chats
• No chats

I also cannot open local folders/projects from the normal sidebar/project flow.

However, the chat data is not gone. Search still works:

• If I click Search, I can find the missing chats.
• I can open existing chats from Search.
• I tested one of the missing chats by sending a message saying test.
• The message was accepted and the chat continued.
• Even after sending that new message, the chat still did not appear under Chats in the left sidebar.

So this appears to be a sidebar/home/project listing problem, not total session data loss.

Local data still appears to exist on disk:

• The local Codex sessions directory contains 33 rollout-*.jsonl files.
• The local Codex session_index.jsonl exists and contains 60 indexed thread entries.
• The index includes thread names updated on 2026-04-21, 2026-04-22, 2026-04-23, and 2026-04-24.
• The local Codex state_5.sqlite exists and was recently updated.

Logs around startup show thread/list requests returning without an obvious request error, but the UI still renders an empty chat list. Logs also show this warning around the update/startup window:

[global-state] Failed to load global state errorMessage="Unterminated string in JSON at position 524288 (line 1 column 524289)"

What steps can reproduce the bug?

I do not have a clean deterministic repro yet. What happened:

1. Use Codex Desktop on Windows with existing chat history, pinned chats, local folders, and projects.
2. Install/restart after the recent Codex app update.
3. Open Codex Desktop.
4. Observe that the sidebar shows Chats -> No chats, with pinned chats, local folders, and projects missing.
5. Click Search.
6. Search can still find the missing chats.
7. Open an existing chat from Search and send a new message.
8. The chat remains absent from the left sidebar even after new activity.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex Desktop should continue showing existing chat history, pinned chats, local folders, and projects after an app update.

At minimum, if Search can still find and open a chat, that chat should also appear in the normal Chats sidebar list, especially after new activity in that chat.

Additional information

This may be related to prior history/session issues, but it seems broader than a single project timeline path mismatch:

• Related: #10640
• Related: #18253

The important part: this does not look like all local data was deleted. Existing chats remain discoverable and usable through Search. The failure appears specific to the sidebar/home/project listing and possibly pinned/project state.