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WordPress Guide → Post → Undelete Category

Can you un-delete a WordPress category? No, but you CAN …

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Deleted a category in WordPress and can’t find a way to get it back? You’re not alone. WordPress doesn’t give you a Trash option for categories the way it does for posts or pages.

But that doesn’t mean you’re stuck. Let’s walk through what happens when a category is deleted and how to recover your content—even if the category itself is gone for good.

Why WordPress categories can’t be undeleted

WordPress treats categories differently from posts and pages when it comes to deletion. Here’s why you can’t just click an “Undo” button or restore them from the trash.

Deletion is permanent

When you delete a category, WordPress removes it entirely from your database. Unlike posts or pages, which go into the Trash and can be restored within 30 days, deleted categories are not stored anywhere in WordPress. Once deleted, they’re immediately erased.

The database entry is gone

WordPress saves all categories as terms in the database. When a category is deleted, its corresponding term entry is removed. Any posts that were assigned to that category aren’t deleted, but they lose their category association and get moved to the default category—usually “Uncategorized.”

What happens to posts in a deleted category?

If you delete a category, WordPress automatically reassigns any posts in that category to the default one. By default, that’s “Uncategorized,” but you can change it in Settings > Writing if you’d rather use a different fallback.

The important thing to know is that the posts themselves are still safe. Their titles, content, media, tags, and even custom fields are unaffected. Only their category association is lost.

How to recover a deleted WordPress category

You can’t bring the exact category back with a single click, but there are two solid workarounds depending on your setup: restoring from a backup or recreating it manually.

Option 1: Restore your site from a backup

If you have a backup from before the category was deleted, you can restore that backup to recover the category and all its post assignments.

Check your backup tool. If you’re using a plugin like UpdraftPlus, BlogVault, or Duplicator Pro, log into your WordPress dashboard and go to the plugin’s restore settings.
Restore only the database. You don’t need to restore the entire site, just the database. That’s where category data is stored.
Confirm your category is restored. After the restore, check Posts > Categories to make sure the deleted category is back.
Double-check your post assignments. Posts that were once in that category should now be reassigned properly.

Be aware that restoring a backup will also roll back any other changes made to your posts, settings, or users since that backup was created.

Option 2: Recreate the category manually

If you don’t have a usable backup, your best option is to manually recreate the category.

Go to Posts > Categories in your WordPress dashboard.
Create a new category using the same name, slug, and description as the one that was deleted.
Click Add New Category.
Go to Posts > All Posts and use the filter or search to find posts that belonged to the deleted category.
Edit each post and reassign it to the new category. You can do this in bulk by selecting multiple posts, choosing Edit from the Bulk Actions dropdown, and assigning the new category.

This doesn’t restore the old category’s metadata (like custom fields, if you used them), but it recreates the structure and keeps your content organized.

Important tips for avoiding future data loss

It’s easy to delete a category without realizing the consequences. Here are a few tips to prevent problems down the road.

Use a backup plugin like UpdraftPlus or Jetpack to keep regular backups of your site.
Change the default post category in Settings > Writing to something other than “Uncategorized” so deleted posts still land in a meaningful place.
Use a staging site to test changes before making them on your live site. This helps prevent accidental deletions or data issues.

Getting started with recovering WordPress categories

Accidentally deleting a WordPress category can be frustrating, but it’s not the end of the world. While WordPress doesn’t offer a built-in way to undelete a category, you can either restore from a backup or manually recreate the category and reassign your posts.

Start by checking your backup options. If you’ve got one, restoring your database is the fastest way to bring your site back to normal. If not, take a few minutes to recreate the structure by hand—you’ll be back on track quickly.

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