A user, Monte_Kalisch, encountered an error when trying to move a category (with 4 subcategories) under another root category, receiving the message: “You can’t nest a subcategory under another.” simon clarified that Discourse only supports two levels of nesting (category → subcategory), and advised moving the subcategories first before reassigning the parent. Monte_Kalisch expressed disappointment at this limitation. Other users, including Doniel_Zoldan1 and volanar, reacted with surprise or frustration, with volanar questioning the design logic. Jonathan5 shared a workaround from a Meta Discourse thread, explaining how to increase the nesting limit from 2 to 3 via the Rails console. Monte_Kalisch appreciated the tip but noted potential implementation issues, acknowledging it may still help future users. The discussion highlights a known Discourse constraint and a technical workaround for advanced users.
I have a category (itself with 4 subcategories) that I had at the root, but I want to move under an existing root category. When I try to update the Parent Category, I’m seeing the following error:
You can’t nest a subcategory under another.
I thought I would be able to move things around any time, but maybe there’s another way I should be doing this?
Discourse only supports two levels of category nesting (category/sub-category.) You’ll need to change the Parent Category of the category’s 4 subcategories before you can convert the root category to a sub-category.
Oh, that’s a huge bummer and restriction. Thank you for the info though.
Thanks for the info.
Are there other forum engines that do not allow adding child categories to sub-categories? The answer is no. I don’t understand the developers logic
Does this help? Sub-sub-categories - #7 by Michael_Uray
This would have been very helpful when I first ran into the problem, but after reading the implementation I think it’s got its own issues. Regardless, I really appreciate you sharing this with us as it could help the next person.