# How do I disable topic auto close?

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-disable-topic-auto-close/180487
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [February 20, 2021, 7:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-disable-topic-auto-close/180487 "2021-02-20T07:25:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![taher1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/taher1/32/182563_2.png) [@taher1](https://meta.discourse.org/u/taher1)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2021, 7:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-disable-topic-auto-close/180487/1 "2021-02-20T07:25:28Z")

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I have the same issue as [this](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-disable-post-auto-close/109554) post. And the solution here [https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-disable-post-auto-close/109554/6?u=taher1](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-disable-post-auto-close/109554/6) doesn’t work anymore, upon hitting save after clearing the number field it says `Auto close hours is not a number`.

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2021, 1:57am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-disable-topic-auto-close/180487/3 "2021-02-21T01:57:36Z")

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Sorry, can you post a screenshot? That old topic was not helpful.

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### Author: ![Qursch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c37758/32.png) [@Qursch](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Qursch)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2021, 2:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-disable-topic-auto-close/180487/4 "2021-02-21T02:33:38Z")

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Once you set `Auto-close topic after` in a category, it appears that you can’t undo this setting (remove automatic topic timers).

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2021, 3:01am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-disable-topic-auto-close/180487/5 "2021-02-21T03:01:04Z")

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Probably a new bug as @martin is currently working in this area.

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### Author: ![taher1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/taher1/32/182563_2.png) [@taher1](https://meta.discourse.org/u/taher1)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2021, 8:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-disable-topic-auto-close/180487/6 "2021-02-21T08:10:20Z")

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Hi here is a screenshot

 ![Screenshot from 2021-02-21 13-39-35](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/7/7/774abfc1856115313f3c7a16b315e55b00f445aa.png)

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### Author: ![martin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/martin/32/491371_2.png) [@martin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/martin)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2021, 3:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-disable-topic-auto-close/180487/8 "2021-02-24T03:25:38Z")

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I have a fix merged for this now, the issue was that the new control used to input the hours did not handle blank values:

[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/12193](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/12193)

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### Author: ![martin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/martin/32/491371_2.png) [@martin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/martin)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2021, 10:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-disable-topic-auto-close/180487/9 "2021-02-28T22:59:26Z")

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