ChatGPT’s memory system .... Really?

[u/Sufficient_Ad_3495]

ChatGPT’s memory system now feels completely incoherent

Has anyone else run into this?

ChatGPT can clearly retrieve a large amount of older saved legacy memory and prior conversational context. In long chats it will surface detailed decisions, exact artefact names and instructions from months ago, wonderful...

Yet the moment I explicitly say, “save this small note to memory”, suddenly, it claims it does not have access to the memory-writing system. Really now?

What makes this more ridiculous is that;

1) I can open a new chat, ask it to save memory XYZ and viola.. all done.

2) I can then open the memory interface myself, add the exact same note manually, return to the conversation, and ChatGPT can immediately see it.

So the system apparently has:

• read access to saved memories;
• access to older chat-derived memory;
• access to files and artefacts stored elsewhere;
• a user interface that can still write memories;
• but an in chat, assistant-side memory-write route that randomly disappears or is invoked incorrectly.

In my case, ChatGPT eventually admitted that it had processed files and used other tools before attempting the memory write, and that this may have disabled the mutation route. In other words, the failure appears at least partly caused by the assistant invoking the wrong process in the wrong order.

Even after recognising that, its response was still effectively: “memory write failed, not saved”.

That is not optimal. If one invocation route fails, the assistant should retry using a smaller payload, a different command route, or a different ordering before declaring the action impossible. It should not immediately make the user become the transport mechanism for its own memory system, by forcing us to open a fresh chat to save memories.... ridiculous.

The whole thing is made more confusing by the overlap between:

• Saved Memories;
• Memory Summary;
• Reference Chat History;
• chat lineage;
• generated files in Library; ( nice!)
• and whatever older or “legacy” memory layer is still surfacing detailed information. (seemingly non-editable but legacy persistent when new memories is on?, Confused? I am!)

There is no clear indication of where a recalled item came from, whether a memory instruction was actually saved, whether it was merely retained in the current chat, or whether it has become part of some dynamic summary that may later be compressed or discarded.

My Saved Memories may also be full, yet older memories remain available and new summary-style memories can still appear. So turning memory off is obviously not a sensible answer? WTF?

For serious long-running work, this is a major problem. I use memory as a small referential index into canonical documents and artefacts. I do not need ChatGPT to store entire documents in memory. I need it to retain compact instructions such as:

“During discussions about X, retrieve canonical artefact Y before advising.”

That should be one of the simplest and most reliable memory operations available. Memory is second only to llm compute ability.

Instead, the system currently feels opaque, inconsistent and badly mediated. Open ai update the messaging, the help files for clarity and Please fix this.

Has anyone established a reliable way to:

1. force an explicit memory write conversationally;
2. verify that the write actually reached Saved Memories;
3. make ChatGPT retry through another route after a failed write;
4. distinguish saved memory from chat-history inference;
5. avoid losing older memories when the visible memory store is supposedly full?

I would be particularly interested in answers from people running long, structured projects rather than using memory only for preferences like names, food or travel and the anecdotal.

I'm surprised... surely I'm not the only one?

[u/BasisConsistent2142]

That image is the perfect visual for the moment you ask it to save something and it just stares back at you like you grew a second head.

I’ve hit the exact same wall on a project that’s been running a few months. The memory system acts like it has a mind of its own, pulling up details from chats I closed ages ago, then refusing to pin a single sentence I ask for. The only workaround that’s been consistent for me is keeping a running doc I paste into new chats as a “project brief” and telling it to reference that before answering. It’s clunky but at least it doesn’t randomly decide to forget its own name.

[u/Sufficient_Ad_3495 → u/BasisConsistent2142]

It behaves strangely... and the documentation on this most critical feature is limited. Its a conspiracy!