I’m posting this under “API → Bugs” because there doesn’t seem to be any proper place on this forum to give feedback or report bugs related to the core ChatGPT product or the Canvas feature — which is frustrating in itself.
That said, this is a serious design flaw that needs visibility.
I’ve been building a long-term, complex creative project using ChatGPT and Canvas — a survival fantasy game with layered systems, nested structure, and detailed planning. I chose Canvas because it was marketed as a way to organize, visualize, and preserve structured ideas.
But here’s what I’ve experienced:
Core Issues with Canvas:
- Canvas silently overwrites existing documents.
If I tell ChatGPT to “load” a Canvas (like “Core Concept”), and one with that name already exists, it creates a new blank one and replaces the original without warning. There’s no confirmation, no safeguard, no undo — just permanent loss.
- No version control or recovery.
If something gets overwritten, it’s gone. Manual backups are the only defense, but that defeats the point of using Canvas.
- Canvas visually flattens formatting.
Deep structures I create (e.g. categories with subcategories and sub-subcategories) get displayed with inconsistent or no indenting. The structure is there, but visually destroyed — making it hard to manage or reference.
- Edits are not reliably saved.
I’ve edited Canvases, told ChatGPT to save, and then later reopened the file only to find an older version restored — as if the “save” didn’t actually happen. This erodes trust in the entire workflow.
- No warnings for duplicate names.
ChatGPT can recreate a Canvas with the same name and overwrite it without asking. That’s not a user error — that’s a missing safety feature.
Why This Matters
I’m not a programmer, but I’m a designer and planner. I work in structure, logic, and long-term ideas. Canvas was supposed to help people like me bring ideas to life. Instead, it’s made it risky to create at all.
I’ve now lost time, effort, and confidence in the platform.
My information still exists — but it’s scattered, disorganized, and I’ve had to use chat logs and manual rebuilds to reconstruct things I’d already done right the first time.
Final Thoughts
Canvas feels like it was built without being tested by real users working on complex projects. It’s pitched as a tool for creation and structure, but right now it silently destroys work and provides no way to recover.
Please don’t dismiss this.
I really like the idea of Canvas. I even find ChatGPT fun and productive when it works.
But this feature is currently harmful to serious users.
1 Like
To be fair, I’m fairly sure there IS version control, at least on desktop… But yes this is very annoying. Similarly when it is working on multiple code files within a single chat, ive had it overwrite the same canvas as the previous code contents to the point I always remember to remind it to create a separate canvas “doc” for each file.
I am not sure exactly what you mean version control. Do you mean adding like a version every time you save a canvas? If that is what you mean, then it doesn’t stop it from rewriting the canvas blank when i ask it to load the canvas. For example I have edited a canvas had it save as “example v2”, instead of just saved went to load it and it was an empty canvas doc named “example v2”.
I have done all the work on PC.
I mean the back arrow that lets you step back through previous versions and restore…
I’ve been experiencing these same headaches for weeks. I even have it stated in my Project Instructions AND GPT’s, instructing: NO new canvases unless I request them. That doesn’t work either. We are not alone. I see tons of the same complaints in other forums, including Reddit, supposedly Openai pays them a hefty fee for it too. The support team MUST be aware of it, But provide no workarounds or solutions other than the usual, “clear your browser, cache, blah, blah, blah….I can’t be spending all of my time cleaning up my Assistant’s messes. I, too, am a professional creative, I am an Author and a Designer, of many of things. Openai promotes Canvas as this wonderful tool. Meanwhile, it plainly, sucks. This problem with Chatgpt and canvases is the absolutely most annoying thing working in Chatpt. Thank you for your post. You’re speaking for many of us.
Formal Report: Canvas Data Loss, Token Limit Regression & Lack of Transparency (May 2025)
To OpenAI Support & Fellow Users:
As a long-term ChatGPT Plus subscriber and serious creative user, I am compelled to report the following critical issues that have severely disrupted my workflow and trust in the platform:
- Canvas Token Limit Regression
- Previously: Canvas reliably supported documents up to ~25k tokens.
- Currently: Documents exceeding ~8k–10k tokens are at risk of silent truncation, with content beyond this limit not reliably stored or retrievable.
- Loss of Persisted Save Files
- Issue: Committed versions of canvas documents are no longer accessible, and version history has been removed without notice.
- Impact: This undermines the reliability of the platform for long-form content creation and management.
- Silent Data Loss Without Warning
- Observation: Users are experiencing data loss without any system warnings or error messages, leading to irretrievable content.
- Lack of Transparency and Communication
- Concern: There has been no official acknowledgment or documentation regarding these regressions, leaving users uninformed and unprepared.
- Impact on Professional Workflows
- Effect: These issues have rendered ChatGPT unsuitable for structured, long-term projects, forcing users to seek alternative solutions.
Request for Action
I urge OpenAI to:
- Provide clear documentation on current canvas token limits and storage behaviors.
- Restore or replace the versioning and persistence features that have been removed.
- Implement warnings for users when approaching token limits or potential data loss scenarios.
- Communicate transparently about changes that affect user workflows.
1 Like
My work of 15 hours yesterday got wiped out because it did not properly save my work when i asked it to. Went back to it the next day and updates had wiped out my canvas and it said it only had a summary of the 15 page document I had created. This product wastes more of my time than it saves. I had spent an hour going round and round with it because it couldnt figure out it kept missing sections of a document and it could not get the order correct. I had to point out specifically where it was going wrong. It cant count past 7 it seems.
Bug Report: Canvas Overwrites Existing Work Without Warning – No Undo, High Risk of Data Loss
Summary
Over the past four months, Canvas has repeatedly overwritten structured and carefully maintained documents without prior warning or confirmation. Even when explicit user instructions were given to not overwrite existing content or to restore the previous version, ChatGPT continued to generate new Canvas drafts that replaced the existing content irreversibly. This behavior has led to the permanent loss of work, emotional distress, and significant loss of trust.
User Context
- Active user across multiple devices: macOS app, Windows browser (work laptop), and Android app.
- Canvas used extensively to manage multi-layered to-do lists, planning structures, and collaborative text drafts.
- User noticed a shift around February 2025, which aligns with other community reports about changes in Canvas behavior.
What Happened
- User had a live Canvas with structured content (e.g. categorized to-do items, status flags, long-term notes).
- Requested a minor update or to display the current state before any changes.
- Despite this, ChatGPT overwrote the existing Canvas with unrelated or incorrect content.
- User explicitly requested multiple times to undo the change or restore the previous version, using clear instructions like:
- “Please undo that immediately.”
- “Don’t generate a new version – just give me back the previous one.”
- “You destroyed my list – I need it exactly as it was.”
- ChatGPT instead repeatedly created new versions with hallucinated or reorganized content.
- The original content was permanently lost – even though it had been visible moments before.
User Experience Impact
Loss of several weeks of planning work, including task structure, status tracking, and context-sensitive notes
Emotional toll: felt ignored, powerless, and betrayed after multiple override incidents
Loss of trust in ChatGPT’s reliability and respect for explicit instructions
Miscommunication about capabilities: ChatGPT claimed to support “undo within the same session” but failed to do so
Suspected Causes
No persistent versioning system for Canvas (only one active per thread, no history)- Canvas overwrite logic triggers automatically when ChatGPT “thinks” a new canvas is needed
- ChatGPT seems unaware that an overwrite is happening, possibly due to the removal of multi-canvas support
- No confirmation or rollback mechanisms before critical content is replaced
- Inconsistent internal context awareness (“context drift” between reply and canvas editor)
Suggested Improvements
Reliable undo history for Canvas – even within the same session
Version control / edit history – like Google Docs or Notion- 🛡️ Write protection / overwrite confirmation before touching existing structured content
Clear separation between suggestions and actual Canvas modifications- Better transparency about when and how undo is actually possible
Update / Discovery: Canvas Overwrites May Be Misleading – UI Behavior Hides Recovery Options
After further investigation, I discovered a critical detail that significantly changes the context of the bug:
Multiple Canvas versions do exist per thread – but on Mac and Android apps, only the most recent one is shown.
That means:
- When ChatGPT “overwrites” a Canvas, it’s not actually deleting the old content.
- Instead, a new Canvas instance is silently created.
- The problem is: The app UI doesn’t allow users to access earlier versions, so it appears as if the content was overwritten and permanently lost.
I only realized this after opening the same conversation in the Web app, where I saw five Canvas entries under the thread.
Important: None of those five versions contained the original content I was looking for.
They were just the most recent overwrites – created because I kept asking ChatGPT to “restore the previous one”, not realizing it was making yet another new Canvas each time.
By the time I understood what was going on, the version I needed had already been pushed out of the list and was irretrievably lost.
Real-world impact:
- I spent hours trying to recover content that was technically still there – but the app gave me no access to it.
- I repeated the same request multiple times – “please undo”, “please restore the previous version” – not realizing that this was actually creating new Canvases and accelerating the loss of the one I actually needed.
- Here’s the crucial part:After around 10 regenerations, the original version was truly lost. It seems there is a limit (possibly 5?) on how many Canvas versions are retained , and I crossed that unknowingly.
- So although I now understand what happened in hindsight, the end result remains the same:
The content I was working on is gone. Completely unrecoverable.
This was not a recovery. It was a post-mortem.
Summary:
This isn’t just a data-loss issue. It’s a UX deception:
- The system preserves data, but hides it.
- The app UI (especially on Mac and Android) makes users believe they’re working with a single, overwritable document – when in fact, a full history exists in the background , just not visible to them.
- Even worse: There is no warning when older versions are about to be pushed out and lost forever.
This seriously undermines trust in Canvas, especially for users doing emotional, creative, or structured planning work across multiple devices.
This is not a solved issue. The content is gone. And it should never have come to this.
