# Can't delete topic without category

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-delete-topic-without-category/367811
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [May 27, 2025, 6:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-delete-topic-without-category/367811 "2025-05-27T18:19:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 1

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### Author: ![steinjer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@steinjer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/steinjer)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2025, 6:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-delete-topic-without-category/367811/1 "2025-05-27T18:19:10Z")

</div>

I’ve a topic in our database with an category\_id which category someone has deleted. I can open this topic directly with it’s id:  
url: …/t/3

in table topics the id = 3 has category = 4. But this category is deleted and not in table categories. Many of this lost topics I could delete. But this one doesn’t work, cause attribute closed and archived are true.

If I choose in popup menu “Permanently Delete” this topic, I get error message:  
“An error occurred: This topic has undeleted posts. Please permanently delete them before permanently deleting the topic.”

Any idea how to insert a dummy category with id 4 in database or to delete this lost topic?

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cant-delete-topic-without-category/367811)._