When using the previous Saved Memories experience instead of the newer Memory Summary experience, the separate “Reference chat history” toggle is no longer visible.
This is a problem because Saved Memories and Reference Chat History are different controls.
Saved Memories are specific notes that users can review, edit, and delete.
Reference Chat History allows ChatGPT to use context from previous conversations when responding.
Before the latest memory changes, users could control these separately:
Reference chat history
Reference saved memories
That separation was important because some users want to keep Saved Memories enabled while still preventing unrelated past conversations from influencing new chats.
Right now, when using Saved Memories instead of Memory Summary, I only see:
Enable memory
Saved memories / Manage
The separate “Reference chat history” toggle is gone.
This causes conversations to “bleed” between different chat threads. It is especially disruptive for long creative projects, writing projects, roleplay, research, and workflows where each chat needs to stay separate unless the user chooses otherwise.
Temporary Chat is not a full replacement because it disables memory behavior entirely. The missing option is specifically the ability to keep Saved Memories on while turning off past chat history referencing.
Please restore the separate “Reference chat history” toggle for users who choose Saved Memories instead of Memory Summary,
I’m seeing the same issue. I’d like to keep Saved Memories enabled while turning off Reference Chat History. Those are separate use cases, and merging them causes unrelated past chats to affect new conversations. Please consider bringing back the separate Reference Chat History toggle.
But for Memory Summary, I understand why “Reference Chat History” may not work the same way, because Memory Summary is designed to create a summary from all chats.
But when a user chooses to use the previous Saved Memories system instead of Memory Summary, the old separate control should come back.
Same issue here. Default Projects worked fine a few weeks ago, but after the summarized-memory update, the separate Reference Chat History toggle disappeared. Project-only memory avoids cross-project bleed, but it also ignores Saved Memories, which makes it useless for my work. Manually copying the same information into every Project doubles the workload and still works worse than Saved Memories. I need Saved Memories ON and Reference Chat History OFF, like before.
I contacted OpenAI Support about this issue. They told me that the “Reference Chat History” option is still available, even though it is clearly missing from the settings. I replied with screenshots and explained that the toggle is gone on Android, the PC app, and the web app, but they have not responded for three days.Hopefully they add the feature back soon
One workaround that may currently help reduce cross-chat / cross-project bleed is to put a boundary instruction in both Saved Memory and Custom Instructions.
Example wording:
“Treat each project and conversation thread as isolated. Do not import, rely on, or reference information from other threads or projects unless I explicitly ask you to.”
This does not replace the missing toggle, and it is not a perfect technical guarantee, but it gives ChatGPT a clear standing instruction to avoid pulling unrelated chat context into the current conversation.
Saved Memory and Custom Instructions are not the same as disabling Reference Chat History, but using both may help reinforce the boundary until the setting is available again.
That could work as a temporary workaround, but I think the model may eventually stop following it consistently once a conversation becomes long enough or the instruction is pushed out of context. It may reduce cross-chat bleed for a while, but it is not as reliable as having the actual “Reference Chat History” toggle.
Hopefully OpenAI restores the feature soon, especially for users who choose Saved Memories instead of Memory Summary.
I agree. That is exactly why Saved Memories should remain a separate option. They are specific details the user intentionally chooses to keep, while Memory Summary automatically combines information from many past chats.
The problem is not that Memory Summary exists, but that users who prefer Saved Memories should still have the old controls, including the ability to turn Reference Chat History off. That way, only the memories we deliberately save are carried forward, instead of unrelated details from every conversation.
Yes, they did. Today, they finally wrote back and said that it appears to be an issue and that the “Reference Chat History” option should still be available. They also gave me several troubleshooting steps to try.But they literally removed the option its not just a bug
That is possible. I initially spoke with the automated customer-service system, but I specifically asked for the issue to be escalated to a support specialist. After that, a support representative began asking for device details, troubleshooting results, a screen recording, and even a HAR file, so it seems the case may now be under a more technical review.
They also usually respond only after two or three days, which makes it seem less like an instant automated reply, although I still cannot be completely certain how far the issue has actually been escalated.
You’re right. Custom Instructions, Saved Memories, and Project Instructions are not enough to prevent this.
I’ve been analysing and researching ideas and theories for a project that relies on my Saved Memories, and the chat has repeatedly inserted information, settings, and theories from an entirely different conversation. To be clear, this was not information stored in my Saved Memories or included in the project files. In practice, with Saved Memories enabled and no independent Reference Chat History toggle, thread-isolation instructions have not prevented information from unrelated chats from bleeding into my conversations.
At this point, I practically have to move unrelated chats into a project-only memory project just to isolate them, then move them out again whenever I need to use them normally. I’m wasting more time managing chats than doing the actual work. This workflow is becoming ridiculous.
We need the ability to keep Saved Memories enabled while turning Reference Chat History off. Instructions are not a reliable substitute for an actual setting.