# Subcategory permissions cannot be less restrictive than parent's
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 7, 2019, 11:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036 "2019-03-07T23:01:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jill\_S](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jill_S)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2019, 11:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036/1 "2019-03-07T23:01:45Z")
Hi. We have a Discouse installation that has been active for a couple years.
I’m trying to make changes to a parent category and keep getting this message:
> Subcategory permissions cannot be less restrictive than parent’s
No matter what type of permissions change I’m trying to make – making it more restrictive _or_ less restrictive.
It won’t even let me change the _name_ of the category, without giving me this error message.
Thoughts on what could be causing this?
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### Author:  [@supermathie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/supermathie)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2019, 11:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036/2 "2019-03-07T23:55:32Z")
> [@Jill\_S](#):
>
> It won’t even let me change the _name_ of the category, without giving me this error message.
This indictates the category was set up prior to us implementing this check: [Subcategories do not inherit permissions from parent category - #22 by hellekin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategories-do-not-inherit-permissions-from-parent-category/17174/22)
To recover, ensure all permissions for the subcategory are first added to the parent.
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### Author:  [@Ladaline](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ladaline)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2019, 2:17am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036/3 "2019-03-08T02:17:18Z")
I have the same message on my forum for a few days, is not it a bug of the last update?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2019, 2:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036/4 "2019-03-08T02:25:08Z")
As long as you are on latest, the check is valid – it means the permissions on the child category are less restrictive than the parent category, which is kinda busted.
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### Author:  [@Ladaline](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ladaline)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2019, 2:27am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036/5 "2019-03-08T02:27:47Z")
I understand the message, but it appears then that it should not, on all my categories when I want to change the security.
On the same categories, I did not have the message before the update.
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### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2019, 2:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036/6 "2019-03-08T02:30:55Z")
The fix is above as supermathie mentioned. The check is new, but less restrictive subcategories have never worked correctly. The check prevents sites from ending up in an inconsistent state.
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### Author:  [@Ladaline](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ladaline)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2019, 2:41am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036/7 "2019-03-08T02:41:37Z")
Thanks a lot for your answers. You are right, and I understood the problem now.
I found the categories that had problems.
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### Author:  [@Jill\_S](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jill_S)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2019, 1:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036/8 "2019-03-08T13:29:09Z")
Thanks everyone. I’ve resolved my issue. I had to add all groups applied to any child categories to the parent category **all at the same time**. I was trying to add them one at a time and then hit “save” and that wasn’t working. All set now!
Also, I think the error message’s meaning would be clearer if the wording was changed to: Parent category permissions cannot be more restrictive than subcategory permissions.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2019, 3:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036/9 "2019-03-12T03:31:40Z")
Thanks Jill, I believe @simon is looking at improving the copy so it is less confusing for future Discourse travelers.
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### Author:  [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2019, 4:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036/10 "2019-03-12T16:06:13Z")
> [@Jill\_S](#):
>
> Also, I think the error message’s meaning would be clearer if the wording was changed to: Parent category permissions cannot be more restrictive than subcategory permissions.
The error message has been updated to: Any group that is allowed to access a subcategory must also be allowed to access the parent category.
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### Author:  [@csmu](https://meta.discourse.org/u/csmu)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2019, 12:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036/11 "2019-03-28T00:06:25Z")
> [@simon](#):
>
> Any group that is allowed to access a subcategory must also be allowed to access the parent category.
This is remarkably unclear to me as in it states there is a problem, states what the problem is and yet I ~~know~~ thought the description of the problem was wrong.
~~I have a parent category with lots of permissions, the subcategory has less permissions, and each permission it has is in the parent … and yet I got this error message.~~
There was missing permission in the parent category.
It would make way more sense if I was told _what_ permissions are ~~supposedly~~ wrong.
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### Author:  [@csmu](https://meta.discourse.org/u/csmu)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036/12 "2019-06-02T22:19:40Z")
Just had the new dialog coming up stating _what permission needed to be added_ 🙂
Way easier to administer.
Cheers and thanks 🙂
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2022, 2:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036/13 "2022-10-30T02:10:52Z")
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### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2022, 4:05am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subcategory-permissions-cannot-be-less-restrictive-than-parents/111036/14 "2022-10-30T04:05:07Z")