# Deleted published page (topic) slug remains in use
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/deleted-published-page-topic-slug-remains-in-use/182566
**Category:** Bug
**Created:** [March 8, 2021, 10:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/deleted-published-page-topic-slug-remains-in-use/182566 "2021-03-08T22:40:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@reclaimedpress](https://meta.discourse.org/u/reclaimedpress)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2021, 10:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/deleted-published-page-topic-slug-remains-in-use/182566/1 "2021-03-08T22:40:47Z")
I did the following:
- enabled native page publishing in settings (enable page publishing)
- created a topic and published as a page at slug ‘about-us’
- deleted topic while exploring other page-publishing options
- when to re-create the published page at ‘about-us’ via native page publishing (first thing above)
- presented with " Sorry, you can’t publish this page. Slug has already been taken. " error despite the fact the page/topic in question has been deleted and is no longer accessible to anyone (including myself, the admin)
Any ideas on how to fix this, or is this a bug?
Thanks!
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2021, 9:34am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/deleted-published-page-topic-slug-remains-in-use/182566/2 "2021-03-09T09:34:52Z")
Can we repro this @tshenry ?
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### Author:  [@tshenry](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tshenry)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2021, 7:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/deleted-published-page-topic-slug-remains-in-use/182566/4 "2021-03-09T19:12:07Z")
Yep, I can repro on Try following the steps in the OP. Currently it appears you need to un-publish the published page **before** deleting the topic. Ideally, deleting the topic would automatically un-publish the page and free up the slug.
> [@reclaimedpress](#):
>
> Any ideas on how to fix this, or is this a bug?
I’m pretty sure this is something we’ll want to improve, but the current workaround would be to find the deleted topic (you can append `?status=deleted` to the URL of a topic list to find deleted topics), restore it, un-publish the post, then re-delete the topic.
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### Author:  [@reclaimedpress](https://meta.discourse.org/u/reclaimedpress)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2021, 7:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/deleted-published-page-topic-slug-remains-in-use/182566/5 "2021-03-09T19:43:05Z")
Thank you, that did it!
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2021, 7:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/deleted-published-page-topic-slug-remains-in-use/182566/6 "2021-03-09T19:43:32Z")
aha we should assign this bug @eviltrout!
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### Author:  [@Roman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Roman)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2021, 2:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/deleted-published-page-topic-slug-remains-in-use/182566/9 "2021-03-11T14:39:00Z")
Fixed here:
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/12358](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/12358)
Deleting a topic will also delete the associated published page, freeing up the slug.
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### Author:  [@Roman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Roman)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2021, 8:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/deleted-published-page-topic-slug-remains-in-use/182566/10 "2021-03-13T08:00:20Z")
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