Changing category on published article creates new version but old article stays active

[emiltalley]

Changing category on published article creates new version but old version stays active under old category

Questions:

1. Is this expected behavior when changing category on a versioned published article, or did the supersede fail to complete?
2. Why are Outdated versions still appearing in the Knowledge Search category facet — is this an indexing/reindex issue?
3. What’s the recommended OOTB way to clean up ~100+ affected articles so only the new-category version remains?

Any guidance appreciated — happy to share more config detail.

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[Tanushree Maiti]

Hi @emiltalley 

OOB once you publish KB , a new version will be created and old version would be outdated.

Article versioning 

KB0778944 Outdated version of the article is still visible to the end users 

https://www.servicenow.com/community/sysadmin-forum/bulk-retire-older-version-kb-articles/m-p/238965...

[SinghShailendra]

When a published versioned article is edited and the Category is changed:

1. ServiceNow creates a new version (expected).
2. The previous version is transitioned to Outdated (expected).
3. The new version becomes Published (expected).

However...

The previous version should not normally be returned in end-user search if:

• Search filters exclude outdated articles.
• Search index is updated correctly.
• The Knowledge Search source filters only latest published versions.

How to Fix 100+ Articles
I would not delete anything.
Filter only workflow_state = Published and latest version then Reindex Knowledge.


Please Accept the solution if it assisted you with your question & Mark this response as Helpful.


Regards
Shailendra