How do you retire a Knowledge Block when it exists in multiple versions of an article

[Jeff Montgomery]

We have knowledge blocks that have been added to KB Articles that have been versioned multiple times. In some of these blocks we are looking to modify the short description field so it is represents the content of the block more clearly. I have tried checking out the latest article version and remove the block but still cannot make changes to the Short description. This block only exists in this 1 article. I have also created the scenario in my dev instance.

Our plan was to retire the block and create a new block and add to the existing article, but we cannot retire or delete the block as it still exists in previous versions which we can't remove. Even as an admin i cannot delete or retire.

We can still create the new block and add to the article, but without the ability to retire or delete the old block, it can still be selected and added to an article. 

I can delete all old versions of the articles but this doesn't make any sense. 

[Paul Curwen]

I have the same issue. This simply doesn't work OOTB. You could have multiple versions of an article with that KB Block in all retired yet you cannot retire the KB Block.

My solution will be to customise this so the Retire KB Block option is available and works if all related KB Articles the KB Block is in are not published which is how it should have worked in the first place. 

[Zed2]

We are using the following Valid to date workaround:

1. Identify the article(s) with the Knowledge Block inserted.
2. Remove the Knowledge Block from the article(s) and republish.
3. Update the Valid to date for the Knowledge Block.

OR the following:

1. Identify article(s) with knowledge block inserted
2. Remove knowledge block from the article(s) and republish
3. Republish knowledge block to create a new version
4. Validate article(s) no longer related to new knowledge block version
5. Retire knowledge block

[Randall King]

The second option you provided seems best to us. We will use that. It was very useful. Thank you.

It doesn't make sense that the system would work this way. It's not intuitive.

[Stephanie L_]

@Zed this worked great for me but I didn't find this information in the product documentation. Thank you so much for providing this answer! Also note, I'm using the Paris version and your instruction worked for me.