Can Not Add Expense Subcategory

I have the same problem and also tried the repair with no improvement. I opened a different Quicken data file and the subcategory was able to be added as normal so the problem is with my primary data file and validate does not fix it. Any suggestions?

contacted support - had them replicate the issue via the screen - gave me a ticket# to call back to escalate

+1 All I wanted to do was update the tax relationship of a category, and it forced me to make it no longer a subcategory of my expense. Seems like an oops in latest release.

> @dbb_bissell said:
> I see the problem. One should go to his or her list of categories and browse through the first several of the expnse categories. Do you see, when doing that, an odd looking category? One that you didn't create and have never used? If so, delete that category and all of the following categories should be available in your drop down list when you create a new subcategory. This, at any rate, worked for me.

Thanks so much!!! This did the trick.

> @Quicken Janean said:
> Hi All, I have shared this find and fix with our team. Thanks for reporting this. 
>
> -Quicken Janean

Quicken Janean - when will this issue be fixed? I am having the same problem.

After I performed a validate on Feb 8, I noticed the strange category that used to be an old account in the category list.

Today, I noticed I was unable to add a subcategory under any of my personal expenses. I used the recommendation above in deleting the category that use to be an account. I was able to get a partial list of expenses. I noted what was the last category in the list displayed. I opened my personal expenses under the category list and marked "Show hidden categories" I scrolled to the last category I noted above, checked the next category, and noticed another account (currently active) showing up as a category. I deleted it. I was able to see all the income and expense subcategories.

I performed another validate file to see if I got any more issues. I checked the data_log.txt file. It indicated that the QEL: The old file was corrupt and only some of the data has been recovered.

I checked old_logs.txt to see what the log file indicated on Feb 8th. QDF: Repaired an account not mentioned above. It also indicated that an "Invalid category type corrected."

I decided to restore to a previous backup. I actually did several until I knew I had a proper validate on 12/31/2022. For each restore I would check the categories to make sure that I did not see the bogus categories, then I would do a validate function, and finally I would check to see if the bogus categories reoccurred. In each case, they did. I checked the log files, the QDF log file indicated a problem with the account mentioned above and no action required (no other info provided), QEL indicated no read errors and all internal consistency checks passed, but nothing to indicate the addition of these bogus categories.

I decided to restore to my last backup prior to Feb 8th (last validate) and take my chances that this issue will be resolved without my having to restore to last year's backups. I plan NOT to perform "Validate File" until this issue is resolved.

"dbb_bissell" nailed it. Find the "ACCT_###", delete it and income sub-categories reappear. Thank you!

That didn't work for me. When I tried to create the subcategory the parent category was blank in the “Subcategory of” drop down. I didn't notice any odd looking categories in the list. So not knowing what categories could have been bad I tried deleting all of the unused categories except for any category beginning with an underscore “_” and any category that was assigned to a tax line item. I figured I could always recreate categories as needed. Anyway, that seemed to fix things for me. I can know create subcategories. Previously, when I tried to create the subcategory the parent category was blank in the “Subcategory of” drop down. When I clicked on the drop down only a partial list of categories got displayed. After deleting those unused categories when I click on the drop down all the missing categories appeared.

Thanks, all! I was having the same issue. Found the ACCT _xxx category easily; deleted it and can now again create expense subcategories.

> @dbb_bissell said:
> I see the problem. One should go to his or her list of categories and browse through the first several of the expnse categories. Do you see, when doing that, an odd looking category? One that you didn't create and have never used? If so, delete that category and all of the following categories should be available in your drop down list when you create a new subcategory. This, at any rate, worked for me.

THANK YOU! Great catch! I had the same issue, found bogus "ACCT_334a" that I did not create, with no subcategories or transactions, at top of expense category list. I deleted it, now I can create expense subcategories.

I have latest Quicken updates and occasionally validate/super-validate files, so I hope it doesn't re-appear. Unfortunately, before finding this fix, while attempting to repair the category, I created a new top-level category of the same name since Q would not allow it to be a subcategory of an existing top-level expense category, so I now had 2 categories with the same name, one being the original subcategory, the other being the new top-level one with the same name. When I deleted the new top-level category, I lost all my prior categorizations with the same name (both the new top-level and the old subcategory of a different top-level category), so I may have to restore from backup to get it back.

In addition, I just now noticed I can no longer view category transactions or run reports from the category manager by right-clicking the category as we were able prior to the "updates" so I can check my work. That sucks! Now I have to create an new category report to see my transactions? Come on, man!

Thank you @dbb_bissell for your research to have found this bug. I, too, found the first category in my list to be a bogus one that I never created. Since I never looked before, I have no idea if it was there before I had the problem or when it may have appeared in terms of version updates and no idea of how a bogus new category would have appeared in some way linked to an update unless there is a gremlin at work at Quicken. My bogus category was named" ACCT-10b8d. I deleted it and then the full list of Top-level categories appeared in the dropdown list for creation of Subcategories.

I re-added that category to my category list so that I would have a screenshot with it present. Just to see what might happen, I then tried creating a Subcategory with the bogus category back in the list. The drop down list now had the full array of Top-level categories. This suggests that there must have been some additional code attached to this category listing that was creating the problem. The text of my bogus category and that posted by Quicknator and others has the air of a code notation that might have not been properly "surrounded" to isolate it.

RE: the suggestion/request of Quicken Janean and Quicken Jasmine to share this with Quicken through the Help>Report a Problem method, I had done so prior to having descended this thread far enough to have found the solution. I am going to repost a Help>Report problem now with the bogus account replaced, but with the program now allowing me to create new categories.

By the way, as I am also, since an update some time in the Fall of 2022, unable to change Tags from Register Reports or other reports with individual transactions (despite several hrs with customer service and their agent reproducing the problem on his version of Quicken with his data and with a test data file), I went to my Tags List and found several bogus tags that I had not created. Removing them did not resolve that problem. I see from the forum that others have the same issue. These bogus tags also had the appearance of code string pieces. Is seems there may be something not cool happening in the diligence of the coding team's verification process.

One problem resolved.

Yes, there were were two odd expense categories that I never created, right near the top of the list. ***Quicken: please fix this ASAP.*** Members: I deleted both of these odd categories and now I can edit expense categories and create subcategories.