Changes to categories are not being saved

Last update: Thu Jul 27 2023 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Topics:
Categories

CREATED FOR:

Developer

This article provides a fix for when updating product categories via the Commerce Admin, the changes are not displayed on the Admin and storefront. The problem is caused by the corrupted data in the catalog_category_entity table. To solve the issue, fix or remove the problematic category update records in the table. After that, you should be able to update product categories using the Admin.

Issue

After making changes to a product category in the Admin and saving, the new updates are neither saved nor displayed in the Admin and storefront.

Steps to reproduce

Go to Catalog > Categories.
Select a category.
Make changes, then click Save.
The message is displayed: You saved the category.
Notice that the change you’ve made has not been saved.

Possible cause: corrupted data in the `catalog_category_entity` table

The issue is caused by the same values in the created_in column of the affected category records in the database (DB).

Corrupted data in the catalog_category_entity table

Details:

The catalog_category_entity DB table has two or more records for the affected category (these records have the same entity_id value).
These category records have the same values in the created_in column.

How does the second DB entry (and all the next ones) appear in DB for one and the same category?

The second DB record (and, possibly, the next ones) for the affected category means there have been category updates scheduled using the Magento_Staging module. The module makes an additional record for a category in the catalog_category_entity and that is the expected application behavior; the problem is that the records have the same values for the created_in column.

How do the same values appear?

We cannot state the reasons for data corruption with certainty. The possible reasons may include:

customizations (code, themes, etc.)
incorrect data migration
incorrect data restore from backup

To the best of our knowledge, such data corruption is not typical for the “clean” (out-of-the-box) Adobe Commerce instance and cannot be reproduced on an Adobe Commerce installation with no customizations.

How to verify this is your issue

The catalog_category_entity table should have multiple records for the affected category (records should have the same entity_id value) and at least two of those records should have the same created_in values. With this, the Staging-scheduled updates would not be displayed in the Commerce Admin; you would only see the empty Scheduled Changes block.

Steps to verify

Access the catalog_category_entity table in your database.
Filter entities by entity_id, with entity_id identifying the affected category.
If the values in the created_in column are the same for different entries with the same entity_id, that’s our case. Normally, the created_in values are different for every record.

Corrupted data in the catalog_category_entity table

Solution

You may choose one of the following solutions:

Delete the problematic category update records
Repair the problematic category update records

Delete the problematic category update records

In this solution, you will need to set the correct updated_in value for the initial category record and delete all other records for this category. This removes all scheduled category updates.

Follow these steps:

Find the DB records with the entity_id of the affected category.
Select the record with the biggest integer in the updated_in column.
Copy the updated_in value from the selected record.
Select the record with row_id = entity_id (initial category record) and paste the copied value to the updated_in column of this record.
Delete row(s) with row_id not equal to entity_id .

Repair the problematic category update records

Find the category records with the same entity_id and the same created_in value.
Select the record where row_id = entity_id and copy the updated_in value.
Select the record where row_id is not equal to entity_id and paste the copied updated_in value as the created_in value. See the screenshot below as an illustration.
Verify that the category update record, the created_in value of which you have updated (in step 3), exists in the staging_update table. For example: IF the copied created_in value is 1509281953, THEN the entity with row_id = 1509281953 must exist in the staging_update table