Summary
I’m running the ChatGPT Windows desktop app from the Microsoft Store, and the UI broke within the past few hours (night of June 26–27, 2026). Folder icons in the sidebar appear for about a second, then disappear. When I click a conversation, no message text loads. Log in does nothing—no browser tab, no navigation, no error.
The same account works normally for me in Chrome at chatgpt.com. Icons stay visible, and conversations load. This seems limited to the desktop app, not my account or a general outage.
Someone else posted about the same login failure today in the community thread titled “Can’t log in to the desktop app.”
My environment
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| App | ChatGPT (Microsoft Store) |
| App version | 1.2026.133 (1.2026.133.0) |
| Package | OpenAI.ChatGPT-Desktop_1.2026.133.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0 |
| Store listing last updated | May 15, 2026 (as far as I can tell, this is the latest build) |
| Electron / Chromium | Electron 39.2.7, Chrome 142.0.7444.235 |
| OS | Windows 11 Pro — Windows_NT 10.0.26200 |
| Architecture | x86_64 |
| Locale | en-US |
| Browser (control test) | Google Chrome — works |
Diagnostic blob from the app:
name: ChatGPT
version: 1.2026.133
locale: en-US
os_name: Windows_NT
os_version: 10.0.26200
arch: x86_64
What happened
Symptoms started within the past few hours, around the time of the June 26 ChatGPT outage (~53 minutes, per Down for Everyone or Just Me).
Before I logged out:
- Sidebar folder icons flashed briefly (~1 second), then vanished.
- Conversation titles were still visible, but opening one showed no message content.
After I tried to log out and back in:
- Log in became completely unresponsive.
Steps to reproduce
- Open the ChatGPT Windows desktop app (Microsoft Store, v1.2026.133).
- Watch the sidebar—folder icons appear briefly, then disappear within ~1 second.
- Click any conversation—the main pane stays empty.
- Click Log in—nothing happens (no Chrome window, no auth page, no error).
- Open chatgpt.com in Chrome on the same machine, same account—icons and conversations load normally.
Expected vs. actual
Expected: Icons stay visible, conversations load, and Log in opens the auth flow (I believe the desktop app sends login to the system browser via auth.openai.com).
Actual: Icons flash and disappear, conversation content never loads, and Log in is a no-op. Chrome on the same PC works fine.
What I already tried
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Full quit from the tray and relaunch | No change |
| Sign out (before login broke completely) | Left me in a broken logged-out state |
Reset local app profile (renamed %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\OpenAI.ChatGPT-Desktop_…\LocalCache\Roaming\ChatGPT, fresh start) |
Log in still did nothing on an empty profile |
| Rolled back to my original profile | Restored prior state; symptoms unchanged |
| Confirmed Microsoft Store version | Already on 1.2026.133 |
Additional notes
- My desktop app’s
main.log(errors only) has older entries, including “Unable to decode turbo-stream response” and a “DeniedopenExternalpermission request” from June 12. It has not updated when I click Log in now, so the click may be failing before the app reaches its auth handler. - I had a separate
openExternal/browser-default issue on this machine in May 2026 that was fixed viaStartMenuInternet; normal https links from other apps open in Chrome correctly today.
Temporary workaround
Install ChatGPT as a Chrome PWA until things are fixed. This post explains how: Windows desktop app's sidebar icons vanish, conversations empty, and login button does nothing after logout (browser works fine) - #77 by Hyphen